1. Home
2. Conferences
3. 2007 National Extension Risk Management Education Conference

Helping Ethnic Chinese Growers Conform to Water Regulations and Manage their Risks.

Aziz Baameur

Summary

Helping Ethnic Chinese Growers Conform to Water Regulations and Manage their Risks.

Chinese growers in the California’s Central Coast area have recently begun to learn about water quality issues. UC Small Farm program in cooperation with other local and regional agencies have committed to address the needs of this community whose primary means of communication remains Chinese. This might be the first water quality training in Chinese. Presently, Over 95% of the growers grow greenhouse Asian vegetables.

The material is loosely based on the concept of the popular UC Water Quality Short course used in the central coast. The class is 15-hour long and is set up in 5 different installments. Material selection and writing were made to accommodate the limited theoretical knowledge of the percipients.

In this presentation we will focus on the irrigation and nutrient management part of the training. The training designed to be participatory hands-on approach. They took place in operating greenhouses. The pertinent written materials were translated into Mandarin Chinese. The materials were delivered to the growers simultaneously in English and Cantonese Chinese.

Participants learned to evaluate existing greenhouse irrigation systems for irrigation distribution uniformity and fertilizer application uniformity. The highlight of the sessions was the participation of the attendees in collecting the data that were the basis for the calculations and comparisons between two sprinkler types for uniformity. The attendees were also introduced to the concepts of fertilizer injection time, travel time, and flush time, techniques to help them curb excess water and fertilizer use.

Details

---