New on-farm Recharge Project With a Soil Health Twist Targets Pistachio Orchards in the San Joaquin Valley

By Monserrat Solis

A large-scale pilot project studying the effects of recharging water onto pistachio orchards, some with cover crops and some without,  is in full swing across the San Joaquin Valley. 

The project, a collaboration between private nonprofit Sustainable Conservation, American Pistachio Growers and Fresno State University kicked off in January and will study recharge on six orchards in Tulare, Merced and Madera counties. Each pilot partner recharges onto 20 acres of orchard with cover crops and 20 acres with no cover crops.

“It’s an honor to be part of this research project,” Jimi Valov, a third generation pistachio farmer and pilot partner said during a visit to his orchard in Tulare County. 

Valov spoke with visitors in January as water gushed onto his orchard.

Pistachios were chosen for this recharge project because they cover about 600,000 acres in the Central Valley, Rogell Rogers, an Agronomist for Sustainable Conservation told SJV Water.

“Because of the substantial acreage and the location within high-priority basins, pistachio orchards could play an outsized role in increasing the groundwater recharge capacity of the San Joaquin Valley,” Rogers said.