Using focus groups to assess almond growers’ plant nutrition information needs

University of California (UC) scientists have established critical values (CVs) for almond production, but the nutritionalinformation the CVs provide may be outdated and insufficient. In December 2006, researchers at UC Davis conducted focusgroup interviews with a sample of stakeholders in California’s almond industry. The focus groups were designed to collectinformation relating to factors affecting growers’ nutrition decisions, priorities in education and research relating to plantnutrition, and expected consequences of environmental regulation for the industry. Stakeholders identified problems withthe CVs and voiced concern about the future of the almond industry in light of impending environmental regulations. Manystakeholders identified university research as a way to protect the industry by providing strong, recent scientific data onwhich nutritional limits and environmental regulations can be based. The focus groups served as a useful research methodfor obtaining detailed information about stakeholders’ motivations and priorities and also for informing a quantitativefollow-up survey that was subsequently mailed to a larger population of Californian almond growers