California Funds $4.99M Grant for Navel Orangeworm Control

At hull split, an almond orchard becomes a clock with a soft shell. The opening is small, but it gives navel orangeworm an opportunity to turn a developing nut into a sorting-line problem. The pest has a talent for arriving at exactly the part of the season when timing gets expensive.

That pressure is reflected in a 2026 survey of tree-nut growers, which identified navel orangeworm as the leading pest concern among respondents. For almond and pistachio farms, control is less a single treatment than a season-long negotiation with hull condition, orchard timing and the bugs that make use of both.

A grant aimed at the gap

California has allocated $4,994,419 for research into biological control of navel orangeworm, according to FreshPlaza's report on the grant. The work is intended to reduce reliance on chemical insecticides and address more than $800 million in annual losses reported for almond and pistachio growers.

The funding comes through a collaboration between the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and the Almond Board of California. That pairing gives the project a familiar shape in specialty crops: public-minded research joined to an industry organization that knows where the pest is already charging rent.

The orchard still has to make hull split count

Biological control is a research direction, not a new product on the spray-rig shelf. In the meantime, guidance for high-pressure seasons continues to emphasize application timing, canopy coverage, product selection and season-long management as orchards approach hull split.

That distinction matters for California farms budgeting labor and materials now. A grant can pay for the search for a better tool; it does not change an orchard's current pest-control program, its harvest schedule or the need to protect nuts during the vulnerable part of the season.

Biological tools take a while to become farm tools

California agriculture officials have been pressing for faster development and deployment of biological pest controls. At the 2026 Salinas Biological Summit, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross argued that the state needs more of them as pest pressure mounts, as reported by Agri-Pulse. The navel orangeworm project fits that larger push, though the public announcement does not identify a release schedule, trial locations or a future commercial product.