CASP and Continuous Improvement
The direction set by the Almond Orchard 2025 Goals and the industry’s journey to achieve those goals is integral to the progress documented and learnings gathered from ABC’s California Almond Stewardship Platform (CASP).
CASP has four main components:
The California Almond Stewardship Platform (CASP) is comprised of research, grower education, almond-based tools and self-assessment data. The CASP self-assessments reflect aggregated industry practices. Through the Grower Data Assessment & Evaluation tool, growers can opt-in to share data with handlers as part of their handler’s sustainability programs
- The research and grower education are integral parts to the Platform, and allow ABC to educate growers on a variety of practices and provide accurate information from the research that has, and continues, to be conducted.
- The grower self-assessment component helps growers identify areas of improvement across their operations and document their progress toward achieving improved practices via a series of assessment questions about their farming and operational practices. On the CASP online system – Almondstewardship.org.org – growers can not only complete their assessment but also access free decision support tools, such as a Nitrogen Management Plan Reporting and Mapping Tool.
- It provides the industry with the information it needs to tell consumers, buyers, and other stakeholders worldwide about the California almond community’s efforts to grow almonds in a safer, healthier and more sustainable way. Handlers can receive a consolidated report of their growers’ practices (shared in aggregate) and how those practices compare to growers across the state. Growers can also get credit for their practices via the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform Farm Sustainability Assessment, which is benchmarked against CASP to provide global relevance to grower practices. Further, ABC can access data (also in aggregate) that can be shared with trade professionals, sustainability-minded consumers and others to best communicate the industry’s responsible growing practices.
CASP and the 2025 Goals are completely interconnected: Data from CASP will be used to track the industry’s progress toward achieving each of the 2025 Goals. Looking to the IPM Goal, specifically, progress against this goal will focus on combatting the five pests – listed above – that provide the biggest economic headaches and explore how new tools can effectively address those pests. Progress will also be determined by the industry’s adoption of the three recommended management practices, also list above, which aim to further guide the industry on its path toward continuous improvement.
Ultimately, with the 2025 Goals and CASP, growers are looking not only to improve their responsible growing practices but also to farm more efficiently, improving their bottom line and preserving their orchards for future generations of growers.