Steve Vasquez

Vice Chair

About…

Steve previously worked for the UC Cooperative Extension as a Farm Adviser, focused on grapes and viticulture for about fifteen years. He then joined an international fertilizer company as a research agronomist and supported a sales team on the West coast. Next he joined a large table grape farming company as the director of agronomy and helped the farm team put together nutrition programs, evaluated pesticide programs and irrigation management, coordinating all of the on the farm research. He now works for Sun-Maid, helping growers improve their production through fertilizer programs, irrigation, and pesticide products.

Q+A:

What are the benefits to becoming a CCA?

“The benefits of becoming a CCA are learning about the latest plant health technologies. The CCA community in California is small in comparison to the number of crops grown in the state. We grow 400 plus crops on a commercial scale, in varying growing conditions. Crop health is important for those crops and growers. Once good information is identified it is shared with growers and farmers to help form decisions. The profit margins in farming are very thin, even here in California, the top agriculture state. Growers are farming multiple crops, they don’t have a lot of time to track and follow plant nutrition and research. This is where the value of a good CCA comes into play. The benefit is becoming a specialist in different crops or like crops and sharing that information with growers.”