Spanish tomato researchers tour NRI Project field in Five Points
Spanish tomato researchers, Pedro Garcia of Transformaciones Agricolas de Badajoz in Spain, and farmer Francisco Carapeto, along with Westside Equipment's Abraham Quiroga, and Oxnard, CA vegetable crop consultant, Jesus Valencia, visited the longstanding NRI Project conservation agriculture field in Five Points, CA on April 27th as part of their whirlwind tour of innovative tomato production efforts underway in California. The tour was organized and sponsored by founding CASI private sector partners, Juan Trujillo and Alan Wilcox of Wilcox Agriproducts in Walnut Grove, CA. Wilcox Agriproducts provides a vast array of minimum tillage equipment to row crop farmers worldwide. The visitors also met with Jesse Sanchez of Sano Farms in
Firebaugh and learned about the work that he and Alan Sano have been conducting with cover crops and minimum tillage for tomatoes.This visit was also a reunion for Valencia and Mitchell who hadn't seen each other since they toiled together more than twenty years ago hoeing weeds and putting together irrigation systems under the tutelage of University of California Fresno County Cooperative Extension Emeritus Advisor, Don May.