Summary of Farmland Change from 2018-2020
Irrigated farmland in California decreased by 51,402 net acres. The highest-quality farmland, known as Prime Farmland, decreased by 34,365 net acres, coupled with a Farmland of Statewide Importance decrease of 18,671 net acres. The addition of 1,634 net acres of irrigated crops on lesser quality soils, mapped as Unique Farmland, partially offset these losses of farmland.
What Farmland Was Converted Into
- Urban development in California totaled 23,811 net acres for this period, taking 6,839 acres out of irrigated farmland (Prime, Statewide, and Unique Farmland). This is the lowest net urbanization total in program history, and 37 percent less than the 37,583 acres urbanized between 2016 and 2018. Southern California led the way in urbanization with 12,726 acres of development, followed closely by the San Joaquin Valley at 12,279 acres of development.
- Solar facility development accounted for 10,449 acres of urban development between 2018 and 2020, representing 44 percent of all urbanization in the State during that period. This is a 39 percent decrease in solar facility development in contrast to the 17,192 acres developed between 2016 and 2018. Solar facility construction was a significant component of the urban increases in Merced (77%), Imperial (76%), Kings (68%), Kern (65%), and Los Angeles (45%) counties.
- Land was removed from irrigated categories—to uses aside from urban—at a rate 25 percent lower than compared with the prior update (152,627 acres in 2016-2018 and 114,646 acres in 2018-2020).
- Land idling, where irrigated land was converted to nonirrigated land due to a lack of irrigation over time, conversion to dry farming, or in advance of a planned development, was responsible for the conversion of 92,310 acres, a reduction by 22 percent from the 2016-2018 update of 117,927 acres.
New Irrigated Lands Decreased Since Last Report
Conversions of range and other lands to new irrigated land between 2018 and 2020 totaled 70,893 acres, a decrease of 35% from the prior cycle. Sixty percent of these new irrigated lands did not have soil qualities that meet the Prime Farmland criteria. All of the counties in the San Joaquin Valley had irrigated land expansions greater than 3,000 acres except Madera County. New plantings did not exceed 7,000 acres in any county in this region. Sacramento Valley counties added new irrigated land with plantings exceeding 2,000 acres in Glenn, Tehama, and Yolo counties.
Long Term Net Land Use Change
The Department of Conservation has recorded the conversion of over 1.6 million acres of agricultural land in California to nonagricultural purposes since 1984. This represents an area approximately the size of Plumas County. The largest losses in agricultural land have been from Prime Farmland (-850,488 acres), and Farmland of Statewide Importance (-473,958 acres) some of California's best farmland.
Report split to facilitate download:
The Appendices link will be redirected to an email request form so the file may be sent directly instead of downloaded.
2018-2020 Farmland Conversion Report (PDF): Acknowledgements; Executive Summary; Table of Contents; Program Introduction; 2018-2020 Improvements; Understanding the Data; and Land Use Conversion 2018-2020.
All Appendices, A, B, C, D, and E: County Conversion Tables; 2018 and 2020 County Acreage Tallies; County and Regional Conversion Summaries; Rural Land Use Mapping Summaries; and Farmland of Local Importance Definitions 2018.
Note: County Conversion Tables and Rural Land Use Conversion Tables are also available by using the county links provided on the Search for Maps, Reports, and Data page.
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