Insurance covers winter crop damage

Fresno State's farm lab lost nearly 4,000 boxes of fruit

By Megan Jacobsen
The Collegian

The recent freeze cost California State University, Fresno’s agricultural farm laboratory more than $20,000 in damages.

Gino Favagrossa, the orchard farm manager, said the school lost approximately 4,000 boxes of fruit at $5 a piece. However, economically he described the damages as minimal.

The estimated loss in citrus was only five percent of the orchard’s $380,000 annual budget. Major crops like almonds, for example, account for nearly 60 percent of the orchard’s income.

“You can read it in The Fresno Bee, but until you see it first hand you don’t fully understand the freeze’s impact,” he said. “Is it frustrating? Yes. Was it devastating for us? No.”

The five-day sub-freezing temperatures, which began on Jan. 12 in the Central Valley, caused an anticipated $1 billion loss to the California citrus industry. Several thousand workers in the state are unemployed because they have lost their harvesting and processing jobs.

“We did all that we could and ultimately this is a real-life example of what farmers go through,” Favagrossa said. “You can only do so much, and that’s a tough lesson for students to learn.”

Favagrossa said the learning experience students can take from this is that it shows them that no matter what they may think of a crop, anything can be taken away in a heartbeat.

“It doesn’t matter what happened. We have to keep farming,” Favagrossa said.

The school saved eight acres of mandarins and naval oranges by harvesting them before the freeze, but was unable to save the remaining eight acres. It was anticipated the crop could have been picked, but prior to the freeze there was a shortage of labor throughout the entire agriculture community.

Todd Einhorn, a faculty member in the plant science department, said students can learn an important lesson from this.

“When temperatures get as low as they did, there is nothing you can do no matter how technologically advanced you are,” Einhorn said. “However, we can teach students to look at the bigger picture, which at this point is looking at the wood and evaluating the damage done to the tree. Luckily, no damages were done to our trees; therefore, all we can do is to start preparing for next year.”

Fortunately, the farm purchased crop insurance three years ago, but the insurance comes with a heavy price tag. For the 300 acres of trees and vines, the school pays approximately $15,000 a year.

Favagrossa said in order to claim insurance damage from the freeze, farm managers, along with students, will have to go through and strip the trees. Stripping refers to going through and removing all the fruit and will cost about $50 to $60 a ton.

“Coming from an agricultural background, I understand how devastating something like this can be for a family farm,” John Migliazzo said, a senior majoring in agriculture communications. “This learning experience can only make us stronger.”

Comment on this story in the News forum >>