Navel orangeworm. Bee colony heath. Drought and water shortages. These challenges aren’t solved overnight, and yet throughout his career Bob Curtis successfully confronted each one to help improve growing conditions for almond industry members and address environmentally friendly almond production. 
While Curtis plans to retire from his job as director of Agricultural Affairs for the Almond Board of California (ABC) this July, growers will continue to benefit from his work, from his leading, groundbreaking research to his service as a public spokesman for the industry. Curtis is proficient in modern on-farm procedures and programs — he helped develop many of them.
Collaborating closely with university and governmental agriculture researchers — and growers in the field — Curtis has helped to determine and define responsible production practices whose relevance remains as strong then as they are today. His agricultural experience stretches back to his childhood, when he spent days on his grandfather’s walnut and apricot farm in the Santa Clara Valley.
Curtis’ pioneering work began when he was still in college, studying zoology and entomology. He became the first graduate student funded by the Almond Board to conduct production research in the orchard, and after earning his master’s degree, Curtis joined ABC on a full-time basis to manage its production research program.
“Navel orangeworm was a serious problem at the time, so it was a major focus of my work,” said Curtis.
Curtis, with Almond Board-funded researchers, developed a robust integrated pest management (IPM) program for navel orangeworm (NOW), which included a foundation of orchard sanitation to protect almonds. This IPM program involves removing and destroying NOW’s overwintering hiding places — mummy nuts — from orchards. Growers’ adoption of IPM and winter sanitation practices has significantly reduced the level of NOW infestations in California almond orchards, from 8.8% in 1978 to around 1% today. Since this program’s development, government agencies, including the California Department of Pesticide Regulation IPM Innovator Program and U.S. EPA, have awarded and recognized the Almond Board for this IPM program that Curtis helped design.
Another pillar of Curtis’ career at ABC is his work in promoting honey bee health in the orchard. Partnering with key groups such as beekeeper associations, the University of California Cooperative Extension, and organizations like Project Apis m. and the Honey Bee Health Coalition, Curtis has worked to inform growers on how to consider pollinator wellbeing both during bloom and throughout the year.
“Pollination is critical for orchard production, so we must make sure almonds are a safe place for honey bees,” Curtis said.
To assure bee safety in balance with almond production practices, Curtis and third-party collaborators developed the Honey Bee Best Management Practices for California almonds. This best-practices manual for growers includes directions on bee-safe bloom time pesticide practices and explains the benefits of diverse cover crops (forage) in or around orchards to help sustain the 2 million colonies brought in California almond orchards annually to pollinate the crop.
“I’m proud to say that we’re the first commodity that put crop-specific principles together for protecting honey bees,” Curtis said. “A lot of groups across the nation have copied our practices.”
Curtis also has worked with specialists in ag education, environmental policy-making and regulatory agencies to increase almond production and sustainable[1] farming. Given California’s persistent water woes, increasing the almond industry’s water use efficiency has been a key objective for Curtis.
Because of advanced management techniques like microirrigation and more precise water scheduling in concert with advanced horticultural practices, “almond orchards require 33% less water to produce a pound of almonds than they did 20 years ago,” Curtis explained. The adoption of scientifically proven irrigation and horticultural practices has led to a doubling of almond yields in the last two decades.
“It used to be taken as gospel truth that growers should prune 20% of the wood out of a tree’s canopy each season to maintain production,” Curtis said. “But there was no research to back that up. Now we know that growers were pruning away profitability. Research has shown that trees need only minimal pruning, just enough to initiate and maintain a sound canopy structure, orchard access and safety.”
Considering the depth of Curtis’s commitment to agriculture, he concedes that retiring from the Almond Board will be “a big step.” And while he’ll remain a close contact for ABC, he’s looking forward to more time with his family and grandchildren and has already laid the groundwork for his one of his next challenges: training his two Australian shepherds for “agility.” The sport requires trainers to direct their dogs through an obstacle course — including tunnels, tires and seesaws.
“You know what they say about herding dogs,” Curtis said. “They need a job to be happy.”
[1]Sustainable almond farming utilizes production practices that are economically viable and are based upon scientific research, common sense and a respect for the environment, neighbors and employees.
