By Todd R. Hansen
Fairfield — The man (click here) who has come to be known as the Walnut King in Solano County and around Northern California said he has not experienced a great deal of problems related to climate change.
But Raj Kumar Sharma is very much aware of the potential threat, not only to his 700 acres of walnuts in Solano, but to all fruit and nut orchards in the region.
“This year seems OK. We are getting a lot of rain and cooler nights,” Sharma, owner of Sunrise Orchards, said in a phone interview Friday.
Those wintertime temperatures, and specifically the number of “chilling hours” the trees get during the dormant periods, are critical. Warmer temperatures associated with climate change could negatively affect production.
Walnuts, the top money crop in Solano County, had a gross value of $47.36 million in 2017, according to the county crop report. Fruit and nuts as a crop group had a gross value of $116.62 million. At 32 percent, the group was the largest share of the overall $362.82 million crop and livestock value in the county.
Wendy Rash, district conservationist at the Vacaville U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center, said climate change can affect different crops and livestock in different ways, so the solutions must be equally diverse....
...“Climate change has taken a toll on farmers throughout the state and in my district,” Limón said in a statement released by the California Climate & Agricultural Network – or CalCAN. “To protect our agricultural businesses, the livelihoods of hardworking Californians and address a changing climate, we need to invest in our farmers and support their effort to face these growing challenges. I’m proud to author this bill.”...
