Profile and Economic Impacts of Agriculture and Natural Resource Industries in the Northwest Region of Florida
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Profile and Economic Impacts of Agriculture and Natural Resource Industries in the Northwest Region of Florida

   

Profile and Economic Impacts of Agriculture and Natural Resource Industries in the Northwest Region of Florida1

M. Rahmani, A.W. Hodges, and W.D. Mulkey2

The following is the executive summary of a much larger report which is only available in pdf format. To access the complete report, please click here or go to (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FE/FE62000.pdf ).

Executive Summary

This report provides a profile of agricultural and natural resource industries and an overview of their economic impacts for a 16-county region in northwest Florida based on data from the IMPLAN Pro database for Florida counties for 2002 and data from the 2002 Census of Agriculture. Descriptive data include farm characteristics (number, distribution, farm land use, and investment in land and buildings); value of agricultural products; and measures of economic impacts such as output, value-added, and employment. Where possible, changes during the1997-2002 time period are highlighted. Additional reports are available for other major regions of Florida.

In 2002, the northwest region of Florida had more than 5,700 farms and over 1 million acres of farmland with an estimated asset value of land and buildings exceeding $2 billion. Beef and cattle ranching and farming dominated the farm numbers in the region, while woodland not pastured constituted about 310,000 acres, or 30 percent of the reported farmland. Major areas of agricultural activities in the northwest region of Florida included livestock, poultry, milk and dairy products; nursery, greenhouse, and sod; and vegetables, melons and potatoes. The market value of agricultural products sold in the northwest region of Florida exceeded $275 million in 2002, where the value of all livestock including poultry and their products constituted about $86 million, or 31 percent of the regional total. Net farm cash income from farm operations exceeded $31 million for all farms in the region for the same period. Jackson County had the highest farm numbers, farm acreage, and estimated asset value of land and buildings, while Gadsden County had the highest value of all agricultural products sold in the northwest region of Florida. Changes in the region during the 1997-2002 period included a 4 percent decline in the number of farms and an 11 percent decline in cropland acreage. However, the market value of all agricultural products sold decreased only 2 percent between the two census periods. The value of poultry and eggs decreased 43 percent and the value of all livestock and their products decreased by 14 percent during the 1997-2002 time period.

The total economic impacts for all agriculture and natural resource industries in the northwest region of Florida exceeded $3 billion in output in 2002. The forestry and related wood and paper products industry was the largest sector, contributing more than $1.3 billion in total output impacts and accounting for 44percent of the total in the region. More than 33,000 full- and part-time jobs were generated by agricultural and natural resource industries in the region. Forestry, wood, and paper products, the dominant industry group, produced more than 9,700 jobs and accounted for over 29 percent of total employment impacts for all industry groups in the region. The total value-added impacts of agricultural and natural resource industries exceeded $1.4 billion in 2002. Once again, the forestry, wood, and paper products industry group with $586 billion in value-added impacts accounted for 43 percent of the total value-added impacts (the highest for the region). In terms of economic impacts, Escambia County had the highest output impacts, employment impacts, and value-added impacts in the northwest region of Florida.
Figure 1. Study area in northwest region of Florida

Footnotes

1. This is EDIS document FE620, a publication of the Food and Resource Economics Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Published December 2005. Please visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2. M. Rahmani, Coordinator of Economic Analysis; A.W. Hodges, Associate In; and W.D. Mulkey, Professor, Food and Resource Economics Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Larry Arrington, Dean.


Copyright Information

This document is copyrighted by the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) for the people of the State of Florida. UF/IFAS retains all rights under all conventions, but permits free reproduction by all agents and offices of the Cooperative Extension Service and the people of the State of Florida. Permission is granted to others to use these materials in part or in full for educational purposes, provided that full credit is given to the UF/IFAS, citing the publication, its source, and date of publication.