STATE’S TOP AG POLICYMAKERS TOUR PROSSER FACILITIES IN DESPERATE NEED

Last week legislators Representative Kristine Reeves, Chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resource Committee, and Senators Mike Chapman and Shelly Short, Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Agricultural and Natural Resource Committee, respectively, attended a farm tour in Prosser that included touring WSU’s Smart Farm Test Bed facility to discuss water shortages in the Yakima Valley and how budget restrictions negatively affect agricultural research at the WSU Facility.

 To start the day, the group met at WSU’s Irrigated Agricultural and Extension Center (IAREC), where Dean Khosla overviewed the university’s research portfolio and highlighted how budgeting issues are restricting research capability. Participants were shown active greenhouse renovations, which due to state environmental regulations regarding heat-inefficient buildings are forced to use either a mechanical steam boiler from the 1920’s or trucked in propane heating to maintain lab temperatures throughout the winter, instead of the readily available electric power lines that crisscross the facilities.

      From there the group traveled to the Buchholz Farm, where lunch was served and Jon DeVaney, President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, discussed how important WSU’s research is to Washington agriculture and highlighted how growers’ contributions to Commissions and Associations pay for large portions of research budgets. Policy priorities included increased research funding, expansion of research facilities, and regulatory exemptions for research facilities to allow for modernized systems.

      Once lunch was finished, everyone boarded the shuttle to WSU’s Roza test facility where participants saw precision spraying technologies such as drones and targeted spraying systems. WSU research staff then discussed the benefits of such technologies and advancements to farmers including reduced labor, pesticide, and input costs. 

      To wrap up the day we returned to the WSU vineyards to see how a whole suite of sensors could allow irrigators to make watering decisions tailored to individual rows or even plants to conserve water during drought conditions while still ensuring crop quality. Advanced sensors detect things such as stalk shrinking and swelling, nutrient uptake, ambient temperature, fruit swelling, and weather conditions to hopefully one day be able to inform decisions that vary based on crop cultivar, soil conditions, weather, and more to achieve the best results while using as little water and labor as possible.