As development in Arizona’s cities and suburbs increases, the number of farms in Arizona is keeping pace. The U.S. Department of Agriculture counted more farms last year than the year before.

The latest numbers show 100 more Arizona farm and ranch operations last year, for a total of 19,600 in the state.

The average size of a farm was 1,321 acres, slightly down from 2015.

Those numbers defy national trends, with total number of farms down, and average farm sizes going up.

University of Arizona agricultural economist George Frisvold says national farmland numbers have gone down but not drastically.

“People have this perception of lots of land going out of production and the total amount of ag land that isn’t cropped has actually changed very little since World War II,” Frisvold said.

Most of the additional Arizona farms were the lowest in economic sales, while several more farms exceeded a million dollars in sales.