Originally Posted on 11/28/17-12/4/17 by Paul Robins, RCDMC Executive Director
On November 25th to December 2nd of this year, California Department of Agriculture (CDFA) led a group of California delegates, including RCDMC's Executive Director Paul Robins, on a trip to Chile. Chile has a similar climate to California, grows many of the same specialty crops, and faces many of the same challenges related to climate change. Paul posted photos and updates all week from the trip, where the delegates saw first-hand what Chilean agricultural operations and researchers are doing to address climate change and drought. There is so much we can learn from one another!
Day 1 Day 1 of CDFA Climate Smart Ag Mission to Chile: Santiago and Quillota. About a dozen of California ag, resource management and agency folks joined the CA Secretary of Agriculture, Karen Ross, in Santiago, Chile on Sunday. Our goal this week is to learn more about what Chilean farmers, extensionists, and agencies are doing to anticipate and manage their production and resources in regard to climate change. This is Paul Robins, fortunate to be able to join this delegation, and...
Day 2 CDFA Climate Smart Ag Delegation in Chile (posted by Paul Robins, RCDMC).
We started early this morning with a trip to Santa Blanca ranch near San Felipe, which featured an automated water distribution and irrigation management system for ~1200 ac of avocado, citrus, kiwis, grapes and blueberries with elevation differences of ~1600 feet and slopes up to 100% (45deg!). The irrigation timing is based on a combination of soil moisture sensors and weather stations set wit...
Day 3 Chile pictures: at the ag technical high school, including the berries they sell from the farm; plastic techas over cherry trees
Day 4 of CDFA Climate Smart Delegation in Chile 11/30/17 (Paul Robins Reporting and apologizing for late posting): This morning we headed east from La Serena (coastal city) to visit sites in the Elqui River drainage: the Puclaro Reservoir (Embalse) managed by the Rio Elqui Junta de Vigilancia (see Day 3 post for more on these self-organized private river management groups), a steep mountain-side table grape farm at 5000’ elevation managed by Subsole (see Day 2 entry for more ...
Day 4 Scenes from Chile's Elqui River valley, included mesh-covered table-grape vineyards, the Puclaro Reservoir and the Elqui River.
Day 5 of CDFA Climate Smart Ag Delegation in Chile (Paul Robins reporting): On our last day, Friday, December 1, we drove south from La Serena to the Pan de Azucar (‘sugar loaf’ named after a prominent hill) ag experiment station run by INIA (Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarios, see Day 4) for our only stop of the day. INIA extensionists first walked us through descriptions of a portion of their technology transfer efforts with local small farmers, which include on-sit...
For more information about the trip, visit the CDFA Planting Seeds blog post:
Climate Change in the Southern Hemisphere: irrigation efficiency and other adaptations in Chile