Yuma industry is top notch, but still faces challenges
SUN STAFF WRITER
With or without a pandemic, some things never change. People still eat three times a day.
Agriculture was designated an essential business and has continued to produce the food needed by the nation. That’s good news for Yuma, which has an economy that largely relies on the agricultural industry.
“That part hasn’t changed. Agriculture keeps working hard to provide for you, the public out there,” said Paul Brierley, executive director of University of Arizona Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture.
Brierley reviewed what’s going on with agriculture and some of the challenges the industry is facing during the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce “Good Morning, Yuma!” virtual program on Thursday.
Yuma agriculture supplies about 80% of the winter leafy green vegetables for the U.S. and Canada from November through
March. It’s in the top 0.1% of U.S. counties in crop sales for vegetables and top 0.5% for all agricultural products.
“There’s a lot of other things we produce besides those veggies we’re famous for,” Brierley noted.
For example, Yuma County is one of the top producing areas of Medjool dates in the world, with more than 5,000 acres dedicated to growing the fruit. In the summer, Yuma and Arizona also produces Durum wheat, which is exported to Italy, cantaloupes, watermelons and other fruits.
About 150 different year-round crops contribute $3.2 billion to Yuma’s economy. “Some of which I don’t even recognize or know what they are, and one of the reasons is seed crops. We grow a lot of seed crops to produce the seeds for other areas to grow a crop,” Brierley said.
Industrial hemp, a new crop with a lot of industrial uses, is now grown here. “It’s in the same family as cannabis or marijuana, but it won’t get you high. If you see it in the field, don’t try to smoke it, it won’t get you high,” he quipped.
Brierley noted that there’s a lot of excitement around hemp. “The growers are always looking for something new, especially if it can be a rotation crop outside of the vegetable season, if it uses less water, does something good for the soil and, of course, it has to have a good market. So you’ll see more of that growing as time goes by,” Brierley said.
Agriculture directly contributes 1 in 5 jobs and effects 1 in 4 jobs in Yuma County. “We all have a vested interest in making sure this industry is healthy because it’s what makes Yuma County’s economy healthy,” Brierley said, adding that YCEDA works with the chamber and local businesses “because almost every kind of business here has some touchpoint with agriculture, whether it’s equipment dealers, labor contractors, cooling facilities, trucking, the boxmakers, the car dealers, the restaurants, seed dealers, all these things are impacted and largely depend on agriculture.”
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