2025 CDFA Grant for PCAs
The 2025 Grant is Now Closed
Thank you to all of the CDFA Grant participants!
Get the Crop Steward app“PCAs are our boots-on-the-ground partners and have first-hand experience with the multitude of pressures that our producers face every day. The information they will gather through this pilot study will provide a clear analysis of the pests our producers are addressing. This information is essential for understanding the current state of pest management and the impacts of any future changes.”
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2025 Participation Data
What’s New for 2026?
The 2025 CDFA Grant to PCAs is now closed.
If you were a participant in our 2024 and 2025 cropping seasons, we appreciate your engagement!
Now that the study has concluded, we recognize an opportunity to provide a useful, free tool to California PCAs – Crop Steward.
Crop Steward - A Free Field Note Tool Built for California PCAs
Crop Steward is an online app originally developed by CAPCA to facilitate data collection for the CDFA-funded grant study focused on sustainable pest management adoption by California PCAs. More than 100 PCAs participated in the study, contributing thousands of field observations in the app.
Using remaining grant funding and feedback from PCA grant study participants, CAPCA is improving Crop Steward’s user experience and making the tool available free of charge to all California PCAs.
Designed for How PCAs Work
Crop Steward was designed specifically for capturing field observation notes, without unnecessary features or subscription requests.
Key functionality includes:
- Fast, intuitive field note entry
- Voice-to-text, allowing PCAs to dictate notes in the field
- Photos attached directly to individual observations
- New sections to log nutrition notes and water notes during each field visit
Everything stays in one place, organized by field visit — not scattered across notebooks, emails, and camera rolls.
Direct, Anonymous Industry Feedback
Crop Steward also enables direct, timely, and anonymous communication between PCAs and the Office of Pesticide Consultation and Analysis (OPCA).
New input fields allow PCAs to:
- Report abnormal pest pressures that may require attention or support from the state
- Identify chemistries they rely on that lack good alternatives
This information helps OPCA and CDFA better understand emerging issues and prioritize research and projects that support the PCA profession.
Data Privacy Comes First
CAPCA recognizes that trust matters.
Data shared through Crop Steward is fully anonymized before being reviewed by OPCA or CDFA. They do not have access to:
- PCA names or license numbers
- Company or employer information
- Grower names
- Field or location-identifying details
Crop Steward has no fees, no hidden agenda, and no extra fluff — just a tool built for PCAs.
Here are more details about the 2024/2025 CDFA Grant-funded study:
Grant Award: CDFA granted CAPCA funds to document the IPM and SPM practices that PCAs implement in the field.
When: 2024 and 2025 cropping seasons.
Why: It’s imperative to highlight the meticulous consideration PCAs give to both environmental and economic factors when deciding on pest management.
Benefit Distribution: A significant portion of the grant directly benefited participating PCAs and their associated growers.
Data Collection: PCAs registered a single field location within a custom scouting app called Crop Steward. Comprehensive note-taking allowed us to analyze and detail their IPM approaches.
Scope: The study focused on almond, alfalfa, pistachios, grapes, lettuce, and tomatoes.
Support: CAPCA hired four student interns who are passionate about becoming PCAs. These ambitious students were assigned a geographic territory where they were responsible for raising awareness of the grant, answering PCA’s questions, and supporting the Crop Steward scouting app. They were also exposed to the latest IPM approaches beside the best PCAs in the industry.
Collaborative Effort: This initiative was a joint effort between UC IPM, American Pistachio Growers, California Fresh Fruit Association, California Tomato Growers, CDFA, and CAPCA.