The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the 2022 Census of Agriculture data for Puerto Rico. The information was collected directly from farmers by the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture and the University of Puerto Rico Extension Service. The data show that the total value of the island’s agricultural production reached $703 million in 2022, a 45% increase from 2018 when the last Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture was conducted.
“The Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture documents the island’s unique agriculture industry and provides the only source of consistent, comparable data at the regional level,” said NASS Administrator Joseph Parsons. “The new ag census data will help inform policy, program, and business decisions that support the island’s agricultural communities. I want to thank our partners in Puerto Rico for their commitment to helping provide a complete and accurate ag census.”
The regions of Arecibo and Ponce together comprised over 40% of the total value of agricultural production. The top municipios by sales were Santa Isabel ($55.5 million), Arecibo ($54.6 million), and Salinas ($45.9 million). Top commodities by value of sales were milk ($173 million), poultry and poultry products ($111.2 million), and field crops ($74 million). These three commodities accounted for more than half (51%) of the value of all agricultural products sold.
Similar to agriculture trends in the mainland United States, the average farm size increased from 2018 (59.3 cuerdas in 2018 to 65.0 cuerdas in 2022), while the number of farms declined to 7,602 farms, a loss of 628 farms from 2018. While the number of farms declined, the amount of farmland increased to 494,481 cuerdas, or 21.9% of all land in Puerto Rico. This was an increase of 6,706 cuerdas (1.4%) from 2018.
To access the complete 2022 Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture results, visit www.nass.usda.gov/AgCensus. Island, regional and select municipio-level data are available via PDF and NASS’s online Quick Stats database at quickstats.nass.usda.gov. Spanish and English 2022 Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture Highlights publications are also available on the NASS website at nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights.
First conducted in 1840 in conjunction with the decennial Census, the Census of Agriculture is a complete count of U.S. and U.S. territory farms, ranches, and the people who operate them. This is the 19th Census of Agriculture for Puerto Rico and the sixth conducted by NASS.
The Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture report differs from the United States publication in order to best document agriculture on the island. For example, the Census of Agriculture defines a farm in Puerto Rico as any place from which $500 or more of agricultural products were produced or sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. The Puerto Rico report includes data on tropical commodities not included in other census publications, such as cassava, coconuts, and plantains. The Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture also provides specialty data on agriculture production practices, including coffee dryers, emergency electric generators and greenhouse/hydronic sheds, and on unique operator characteristics such as highest year of school completed, number of persons living in the household, and retirement status.
Source : usda.gov