LAND AND CROP CHARACTERISTICS 



The climate, soil, and topography make Southwest Florida a major producer 

 of many of Florida's agricultural products. Among the counties, Hillsborough 

 and Manatee Counties rank in the top ten in the State. 



The ten counties have considerable potential for further agricultural 

 development. The 2.1 million acres in farm production is only about 50% of 

 the potential land available for farming. According to a Soil Conservation 

 Service estimate in 1977, Florida had 1.4 million acres of prime agricultural 

 land, and 1.2 million acres more suited for citrus and vegetable crops. Prime 

 land is the best suited for field farming. It is generally flat or gently 

 sloping land with good drainage and subject to little or no erosion. Farming 

 on this land is the least costly per acre and consequently exhibits the high- 

 est yield. The majority of prime farmland is located in north Florida. Only 

 Pasco and Hillsborough Counties have prime acreage, and it is only 5.2% of the 

 State total . 



Unique farmland is land other than prime farmland that is used for the 

 production of specific high-value food and fiber crops. It has the special 

 combination of soil quality, location, growing season, and moisture supply 

 needed to produce sustained high quality and/or high yield of citrus fruit, 

 avocados, mangos, papayas, lettuce, cabbage, radishes, celery, carrots, toma- 

 toes, cucumbers, and potatoes. Except for Monroe County, all counties have 

 unique farmland. 



The area of citrus fruit groves among the counties are Hillsborough, 

 38,263 acres; DeSoto, 33,882 acres; Pasco, 33,367 acres; Manatee, 14,730 

 acres; Charlotte, 6,100 acres; Collier, 5,975 acres; Lee, 5,384 acres; 

 Pinellas, 3,205 acres, and Sarasota, 1,604 acres. The total is 12.1% of the 

 State's citrus fruit acreage. The nature of the land, especially that which 

 is unique, is important because conflicting uses such as for OCS oil and gas 

 development and residential development may replace some of the fruit crop 

 acreage. Unless productivity of unique lands increases substantially, the 

 prices of products produced there may rise. 



FARM NUMBERS, SIZE, AND VALUE 



The trend in agriculture is towards fewer and larger farms. The average 

 farm in Southwest Florida is and has been larger than the average Florida farm 

 (Table 7). In 1954, the average area per farm in Southwest Florida was 382 

 acres whereas the State average was 316 acres. In 1978, the average acreage 

 per farm in Southwest Florida declined 8.8% to 348 acres, and the average size 

 farm in Florida declined 3.6% to 304 acres. In 1954, the 8,677 farms and 

 ranches in Southwest Florida accounted for about 15% of the State's farm land. 

 These farms and ranches covered 3.3 million acres. In 1954-78, the number of 

 farms in Southwest Florida declined from 8,677 to 6,127 (about 30%). In 1978, 

 the area of farm land was about 2.1 million acres, a decline of 35.6% since 

 1954 (Table 8). 



The number of farms (including ranches) and farm acreage has decreased 

 faster in Southwest Florida than in the State as a whole. In 1954, Southwest 



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