Introduction
The geographical area cropped to vegetables extends from Dateland on the East to Somerton on the West in a 70-80 mile strip. North/South distance does not exceed 20 miles. The abundance of irrigation and dry weather conditions are favorable for growing seeds in Yuma. Growing season allows growers to have the seed on the market on time, ready for open market.
The important challenge for the seed production industry is to produce high yield with uniform, pure and vigorous seed. Proper crop nutrition and adequate irrigation regime are essentials to achieve yield goals.

The production of pure and vigorous seed is achieved by preventing a cross pollination between compatible crops. Pollination is a complex interaction between plants and pollinators. In nature, pollinators include man, wind, insects and birds. Plant incompatibility and physical barriers are the most efficient methods that prevent pollination. Plant breeders in the greenhouse or in small field plots often use emasculation techniques and bags to control pollination. For commercial seed growers, this technique may not be practical or economically sound. The isolation distance between crops susceptible for pollination is the most effective.

An 8 by 12 ft. pinning map is made available to all participating growers and seed company representatives in the Seed Isolation Pinning Map program. The map is maintained by the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension at Yuma County office located at 2200 W. 28th Street, Suite 102. The purpose of the pinning map is to allow growers and seed company representatives participating in the program to locate their fields on the map and mark them with the provided colored pins coded for each crop and each participant. Participants need to travel to the pinning map housed at the cooperative extension office during business hours to mark their fields.

A registry is also made available to participating growers and seed company representatives. The registry documents the work accomplished on the map. It allows the Cooperative Extension to keep a current mailing list of the participants, and inform the participants about the evolution of the pinning map during the year.

Who participates in the pinning map?
All growers who are interested in growing seed in Yuma County are welcome to participate in the program, free of charge. We currently have 39 seed growers from Yuma County, 16 from California, and 5 from other states. Twelve seed crops are grown across the county.

Similar seed production techniques exist in other Arizona counties and in California using the same or similar pinning map. Since the pinning map is displayed at a designated location open during business hours, growers and seed companies are facing logistical problems. Growers are required to travel to the designated area to place the pin on the map to mark their designated field for the season during business hours. County office hours and holidays do not match necessarily the industry schedule. The pinning process and the required travel coincides frequently with a busy harvest season.

The other problem growers are facing with the current pinning map is lack of field history. Generally seed fields are leased on yearly basis. A database that keeps track of all information related to the field history is not maintained. Initiating a manual recording process is not economically feasible without additional funding. A new approach is needed to improve the current pinning virtually without additional operation cost.

The objective of the new system is to simulate the existing pinning map and make it accessible on line. The new system will use the satellite imaging technology available on line to display any desired field location accessible from office and from home PC. The pinning map is password protected. Only registered participants will have access to the pinning map and to their own records. There will be two levels of password protection. The first level will allow the user to see pinned crops displayed on the map. The second level will allow the user to pin his/her own crops on the map without being able to interfere with the records of others.

The construction of this program is relatively inexpensive. The following are required inputs:

• Participating growers, seed company representative, seed crop list
• Satellite imaging technology, ArcInfo and Oracle database software interface, Internet connection,
• Designing, building and training workshops
  

Advantages sought
Upon the completion of this pinning map, the system will:

• Allow growers and seed companies to mark their field from home and office without traveling to the designated area
  
• Allow individual official member of each seed company to monitor seed production program from their headquarter office or during their business trips
  
• Make the system more convenient for growers and seed companies to mark their fields any time during the day
  
• Build a database that keeps track of field history
  
• Increase isolation distance accuracy between crops and eliminate discrepancies
  
• Allow seed companies to cooperate with Arizona Department of Agriculture to use the pinning map for other purposes
  
• Use the pinning map as pilot map: When this pinning map becomes successfully functional other counties, and other states can duplicate it with minimum effort and cost
  
• Use this pinning map as a model for other projects such as disease propagation, crop and weed distribution and insect migration

Progress made and scheduled tasks for 2002-2003
The construction of the pinning map web site has been achieved and functional. An initial testing and training session was scheduled for a limited number of participants to test the functionality of the online pinning map. A workshop open to all growers and seed company representatives was scheduled for the 3rd week of May 2002 to train participants how to use the pinning map. Although tangible progress in designing, building, and training has been made on the pinning map, challenges remain ahead to continue updating pinning map as new crops are introduced and new participants express interest, and the management of the database.

New enhancement
Isolated and inaccessible locations are now fully accessible. Growers from northwest Yuma County along the Colorado River and Bard, California can now use the electronic map.
At login phase, it is now possible to compute range and township that takes the user directly to the field location. The map view area is larger on the monitor that reduces the lateral and longitudinal move of the map.

The advantages and disadvantages of the manual pinning map are outlined in the following table:

Figure 1. The number of fields cropped to vegetable seed by participating companies in the pinning map program

Crop pollinator and isolation distance used by Yuma growers, USDA and Seed Foundation

Full Disclaimers

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, James A. Christenson, Director Cooperative Extension, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Arizona.

The University of Arizona is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or sexual orientation in its programs and activities.

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