Increasing Adoption of the California Almond Sustainability Program

It’s known as CASP, led by the Almond Board of California, and uses grower submitted production information to demonstrate the sustainability of their industry to stakeholders, buyers, regulators, and consumers. It helps growers find ways to improve efficiencies.

Jeff Dlott is President and CEO of SureHarvest, a company that helps develop sustainability management information systems for the almond, wine grape, and many other commodities. "Part of our work has been looking at grower adoption, and of course there's a whole field of thought around that including the Agtech field,” noted Dlott. “It's the same question of how do you cross the chasm, how do you move from early adopters to the middle to late adopters,” he said.

Dlott said that the almond industry is doing quite well in this area. “Right now, CASP is right in the sweet spot through the numbers about 21 % of actual assessments. However, those growers represent 50% of the industry---half of the industry is aware and involved,” he said.

“The next 50 percent is harder,” he said. “In theory, it's the later adopters that are more difficult. And what we work on is looking at the rates. So how many people sign up for online accounts? How many people go on, how much time do they spend? So we track all of that, and then we look specifically at what makes a difference.

Almond Growers, who want to participate in the program, go to SustainableAlmond Growing.org.