Executive Summary
What is the study about?
Conducted by the Department of Agriculture & Resource Economic and the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, this study presents an analysis of the economic importance of agriculture and agribusiness in Yuma County, Arizona. In 2015, the Yuma County Agriculture Water Coalition published A Case Study in Efficiency – Agriculture and Water Use in the Yuma, Arizona Area (YCAWC, 2015). The report characterized the then-current state of agricultural water use in Yuma County and detailed how the region has come to be a key agricultural area, producing high-value specialty crops meanwhile maintaining high levels of water use efficiency while operating in a desert environment. This study presents an update to portions of the 2015 study which examined the economic contributions of agriculture to the Yuma County economy. The analysis is divided into four parts
- Background information on agriculture in Yuma County, including top crops and seasonality of production.
- Economic base analysis evaluating the extent of Yuma County’s specialization in agriculture and agribusiness.
- Water productivity analysis quantifying the region’s agricultural water use efficiency in comparison to other areas.
- Economic contribution analysis estimating the total economic activity supported by agriculture and agribusiness in Yuma County in 2022.
The study considers agriculture as including on-farm production of crops, livestock, and livestock products; agricultural support services; agricultural input suppliers; and university-linked agricultural research and Extension.
What did the study find?
Including multiplier effects, Yuma’s agriculture and agribusiness industries generated an economic contribution of $4.4 billion in sales to the Arizona state economy in 2022. This was made up of three parts:
- On-farm agriculture, agricultural support activities, agricultural input suppliers, and university-linked research and Extension, with multiplier effects contributed $3.9 billion in sales to the Yuma County economy.
- Forward-linked industries delivering raw fresh produce and preparing fresh produce products contributed an additional $254 million in sales to the Yuma County economy.
- Yuma County’s agriculture and agribusiness industry cluster created demand for goods and services in other Arizona counties outside of Yuma. This demand contributed $274 million in sales to other Arizona counties as well as 988 jobs. Most of this contribution occurred in Maricopa County.
The Yuma fresh produce value chain accounts for sizeable sales nationally in wholesale, retail, and foodservice industries. This includes at the national level:
- Estimated gross consumer retail spending on Yuma-grown produce of $3.2 billion.
- Wholesale industry output estimated at $715 million delivering Yuma-grown produce to retailers and foodservice establishments.
- Spending by foodservice industries, which use Yuma produce as an input, of $39 million.
Within Yuma County, direct agriculture-related sales include crops and livestock outputs as well as significant spending on inputs:
- Crop industries directly contributed $1.3 billion to county sales.
- Livestock industries directly contributed $167.3 million to county sales.
- Agricultural support service industries (which include farm labor contracting services) had sales of $411 million.
- Agricultural input suppliers in the county had sales of $944 million.
- Though not generating direct sales per se, university-linked research and Extension generated $4 million in output in the Yuma County economy.
In 2022, Yuma County accounted for roughly a third (29%) of Arizona’s agricultural cash receipts. The value of crop production has increased significantly over that time, from roughly $600 million in 1969 to around $1.3 billion in 2022. Part of the growth in the value of crop production has been driven by a transition away from the production of lower-value field crops to higher-value specialty crops, particularly winter vegetables.
- In 2022, Yuma County was the third-ranked county nationally out of 2,831 counties in terms of its combined sales of vegetables, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. It ranked 13th nationally out of 3,074 counties in terms of its total crop sales.
- In 2022, Yuma County had the 15th highest average cash rental rate for irrigated agricultural land in the entire country, an indicator of the land’s productivity. The county ranked among counties in California and Washington known for producing high-value specialty crops, including wine grape growing regions.
- In 2022, Yuma County ranked first in cash rental rate for irrigated agricultural land among all counties in the Lower and Upper Colorado River Basin.
In terms of regional economic specialization, Yuma is to U.S. vegetable production what Silicon Valley is to computer manufacturing, Seattle is to the aerospace industry, Chicago is to commodities trading, Manhattan is to investment banking, Detroit is to auto manufacturing, and Los Angeles is to the movie and recording industries.
- In 2022, Yuma agricultural producers managed more than $2 billion in farm assets (more than $1.8 billion in land and buildings and more than $231 million in farm machinery and equipment).
- In 2022, the agricultural sector accounted for 14.5% of the county's total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Yuma County is one of Arizona’s top agricultural producers, contributing 56% of Arizona’s agricultural GDP in 2022.
- For Yuma, employment in vegetable and melon farming is 58 times the national average (Location Quotient (LQ) = 58). Similarly, the LQ for Yuma post-harvest crop activities is 51.4, while for farm labor contracting it was 49.7. For crop harvesting, the LQ is 93.8.
- By way of comparison, the LQ is 66.4 for electronic computer manufacturing in Santa Clara County, California (Silicon Valley), 34.3 for aerospace manufacturing in Snohomish County, Washington (Seattle suburbs), 21.4 for securities and commodity exchanges in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago), 18.5 for motor vehicle manufacturing in Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit), and 11.4 for motion picture and sound recording industries in Los Angeles County, California (Hollywood).
Separate measures of irrigation productivity – cash rent premiums for irrigated land, economic water productivity, and blue water footprints – all provide evidence that water productivity in Yuma agriculture is high, and much higher in general than in the rest of the Colorado River Basin.
- The economic water productivity of crop production based on gross crop sales (EWPg) for Yuma County was $1,581 / AF, meaning that $1,581 was generated in sales for every acre-foot of water used for agriculture in Yuma County. The average across all counties in the Basin was $692 / AF. The median, however, was $176 / AF, meaning half of the counties in the Basin had an EWPg lower than this value, and half had one higher.
- Yuma accounted for 18% of crop sales in the Basin, but consumed only 8% of the irrigation water.
- A county’s crop Blue Water Footprint (BWF) is the amount of water consumed to produce $1,000 worth of crop sales. Yuma’s BWF is 0.63, meaning that it takes 0.63 acre-feet of water to produce $1,000 in crop sales. The average BWF for the entire basin is 1.44. So, Yuma’s BWF is less than half of the Basin average. The median BWF is 5.67, meaning that half of the Basin counties have a BWF lower than 5.67 and half have a BWF greater than 5.67.
How was the study done?
This study conducts three economic contribution analyses: one for on-farm agriculture (crop, livestock, and agricultural support service industries), agricultural input suppliers, and university research and Extension; one for forward linked economic activity in Yuma County, and a final analysis of the contribution of the same sectors to other Arizona counties using a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model. The economic contribution analyses were modeled using the IMPLAN Pro 2022 model for Yuma County, Arizona. The model was customized using the best available, most recent data to more accurately reflect the production and economic context in Yuma County. The methods used to estimate economic contributions are presented in the Appendix. The study relies on a number of data sources, first and foremost the 2022 Census of Agriculture (USDA, 2024).