Pomelo Perdition Causes County Crisis
Posted on: Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 18:00 CDT
By Aaron Burgin, The Porterville Recorder, Calif.
Aug. 29--A bitter harvest for pomelo growers led federal officials to declare Tulare County a ground zero agricultural disaster.
Tulare County was one of five Valley counties designated as a disaster area by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Aug. 21, according to the Tulare County Agricultural Commission officials.
Tulare County was named primary disaster area, and Fresno, Kern, Inyo and Kings counties were named as contiguous disaster areas, according to a letter from the USDA to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's office.
"They were hit very hard during May," Deputy Ag Commissioner Marilyn Kinoshita said. "Most of the crop has been wiped out, as you can see by the statistics."
Farmers of the citrus fruit that is closely related to grapefruit lost 80 percent of their crop during a heat wave in early May.
The result -- an estimated $2.4 million shortfall, Kinoshita said.
Growers yielded about two tons per acre of the fruit, compared to an average of 10 tons per acre the past five years, Kinoshita said.
Harrison Smith, a Porterville pomelo grower, said that during May, searing temperatures scorched the fruit's flowers just as they were in bloom.
"We had a 95 then a 98-degree and then a couple of 100-degree days," Smith said. "And it cooked the flowers right off the trees."
"I don't know how I'm going to pack them," Smith said. "It will be hard on pickers because they'll pick some off of one tree and none off the next."
The federal designation makes farm operators eligible for low-interest loans from the USDA Farm Services Agency to cover the loss of income.
It is not clear, however, if many Tulare County farmers will take advantage of the provision, Kinoshita said.
Pomelos comprise fewer than 1,000 acres in the county, according to Ag Commission statistics. Most of the county's pomelos grow between Lindsay and the Tulare and Kern County line.
"It's hard to say because so few growers depend on pomelo as their chief crop," Kinoshita said. "Many of them grow oranges or other citrus."
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Source: The Porterville Recorder
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