Cotton, Citrus Acreage In Arizona Declining

By Heather van Blokland
Published: Sunday, May 14, 2017 - 3:43pm
Updated: Sunday, May 14, 2017 - 10:14pm

Arizona cotton is losing its seat as one of the major agriculture commodities in the state, as production continues to decline compared to historical levels.

University of Arizona Agriculture and Resource Economics Professor Russell Tronstad said Arizona has been decreasing cotton acreage and increasing other acreage, like alfalfa hay acreage used to feed dairy cows and fruit and vegetable acreage across the state. 

“If you go back to 1980, cotton accounted for about 42 percent of acreage in the state in terms of our crop acres, whereas today it’s more like 16 percent, even with our plantings for this year.”

And it’s not just cotton. It’s citrus, too. 

“Citrus is one of the five Cs as well, and shrunk, especially around central Arizona. There’s probably more citrus in backyards then there are commercial orchards in some sense.”

Tronstad said other crops are filling the gap.

"Just in terms of the vegetables, like in the Yuma area, how that has transformed agriculture over there, where everything pretty much revolves around lettuce and the vegetable season," he said.

Tronstad said the top producing agriculture fields in the state, by rank, now, are winter vegetables, including lettuce then dairy, cattle, alfalfa and cotton tied with wheat in last place.

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