For more than 35 years, AFT has examined and responded to the challenges facing the nation’s leading agricultural region. In fact, AFT opened our first regional office here and the San Joaquin Valley remains an important strategic focus for our national organization.

In 2018, AFT released the comprehensive San Joaquin Valley Land and Water Strategy. AFT and the Conservation Biology Institute assessed the capacity and resilience of the valley’s agricultural production by analyzing the distribution, quality, and future impacts on the region’s farmland and water resources. AFT and CBI used the San Joaquin Valley Gateway, part of CBI’s Data Basin online mapping platform, to determine where prime agricultural land and reliable water resources intersect.

AFT’s research revealed some alarming trends about the important agricultural region.

Challenges for Nation’s Leading Food Producing Region

The San Joaquin Valley is the nation’s agricultural powerhouse with more than 300 crops and livestock products. Water scarcity, changing climate conditions, new regulations, and growing populations are just some challenges farmers and ranchers face here. The region is among the state’s fastest growing, with development happening on the highest quality agricultural land. Consider these facts: 

• Only four in 10 acres of the Valley’s agricultural land is determined to be of the highest quality.  
• Only 9% of the Valley’s irrigated farmland is high quality and experiencing low-water stress. 
• As many as 323,000 acres are projected to be converted into low-density urban and rural residential uses by 2050 in the San Joaquin Valley, according to spatial analysis research conducted 2015 to 2018 with AFT and Conservation Biology Institute.  
• An estimated  55% of the Valley’s high-quality farmland has a high risk of development.