White House expands NOW research project

Expanded funding for a four-year old navel orangeworm research project using sterile insect technology (SIT) to help control significant damages the moth poses to western tree nuts has been approved, a move designed to elevate efforts to promote a more concentrated effort to reduce NOW problems in California’s San Joaquin Valley. President Donald Trump signed the $6 million federal spending bill Dec. 20 after repeated visits and conversations with tree nut industry groups leading three delegations of lobbyists, support members and members of California’s congressional delegation who emphasized the critical need to bolster NOW research. The pilot program for NOW provides an opportunity to combine SIT approach with other consistently applied area-wide management measures across the program area as a cooperative effort by the agricultural industry, USDA, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the Arizona Department of Agriculture.