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Publication #FE622

Profile and Economic Impacts of Agriculture and Natural Resource Industries in the Suwannee River Basin Counties in 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/FE62200.pdf).

Executive Summary

This report provides a profile of agricultural and natural resource industries and an overview of their economic impacts for a 14-county region in the Suwannee River Basin in 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 the 1997-2002 period are highlighted. Additional reports are available for other major regions of Florida.

In 2002, the Suwannee River Basin counties of Florida had more than 7,400 farms and close to 200,000 acres of land used for various crops in the region. Livestock, poultry, and their products (4,274 farms) dominated the farm numbers in the Suwannee River Basin region. Agricultural lands in the Suwannee River Basin region were used mainly for cropland, nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, pasture, rangeland, and woodland. Forage (including all hays) was grown on more than 96,000 acres. The value of agricultural products sold in the Suwannee River Basin region exceeded $549 million in 2002. The value of all livestock, poultry and their products exceeded $387 million, accounting for 69 percent of the total value of all agricultural products for the region. Major components of the value of livestock, poultry, and their products included poultry and eggs (over $149 million), milk cows and dairy products ($134 million), and cattle and calves ($45 million). The value of nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod exceeded $47 million, while the value of vegetables, melons, potatoes and sweet potatoes sold reached $42 million.

The total economic impacts for all agriculture and natural resource industries in the Suwannee River Basin region exceeded $3.9 billion in output in 2002. The forestry, wood, and paper products industy ($1.7 billion) ranked first in output impacts in the Suwannee River Basin region. Over 30,000 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 9,000 jobs and accounted for over 31 percent of total employment impacts for all industry groups in the region. The total value-added impacts of agricultural and natural resource industries exceeded $1.5 billion in 2002. In terms of economic impacts, Taylor County ranked first in output impacts, and value-added impacts, while Suwannee County ranked first in employment impacts in the Suwannee River Basin region.

Figure 1. 

Study area in Suwannee River Basin counties in Florida

Footnotes

1.

This is EDIS document FE622, 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. Reviewed December 2008. 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. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.