Extreme heat takes a toll on summer crops in the Central Valley

FRESNO, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – Joe del Bosque of del Bosque Farms produces melons on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

He says the heat is taking a toll on farm workers and his summer crops.

“These fruits, well, you know, they’re not made in a factory, so you can’t go out there and say, make me, you know, a thousand boxes. the plant has to make them, and that, you know, that’s like mother nature,” he said. “Anytime it gets over 103 or 104, it can pose a lot of challenges for us.”

Bosque says that excessive heat can pose the same threats to his melon crops as heat does to humans.

“When it gets extremely hot, and if the foliage doesn’t hold up, they can get sunburned,” he said.

Certain measures are taken to help combat the issue.

“All of our fields have drip irrigation so we can turn the water on and give them a little bit of water just to keep them, keep them up,” Del Bosque said.

But still, he says sometimes the crops can’t be salvaged.

Besides taking a toll on the crops, the heat also takes its toll on workers. If conditions become too extreme, he’ll send the crew home early.

“Sometimes if that happens too many days in a row and we get behind on our harvest, we can actually lose some of our crops.”

This causes issues for grocery stores like Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s, who stock his fruit.

“If people are buying melons, they want to have melons on the shelves and they want us to get them, get the melons picked and sent to them,” he said.

He says this is a task that is sometimes just not doable.

“It’s a challenge to meet demands like that when you have hot days and you have to stop picking early.”

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