Briefs	E-mail PagePrint Version

FUNDS EARMARKED FOR CENTRAL VALLEY AG PROJECTS

MERCED - The California Department of Conservation has earmarked nearly $200,000 to spark agricultural conservation projects in the Central Valley, reports the Merced Sun-Star.

The $197,000 planning grant will assist the Great Valley Center and American Farmland Trust in identifying and negotiating voluntary agricultural conservation easements in four Central Valley counties, including Merced.

The project - Developing Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements (PACE) - will also be supplemented by $350,000 from the Great Valley Center and $25,000 from American Farmland Trust.

According to the state, the four target counties - Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Yolo counties -had a combined agricultural production of $4.75 billion in 2001.

THe California Department of Agriculture reports that Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties all rank among the state's top 10 counties in terms of agricultural production.

The planning grant will make sure that money is available for the Great Valley Center and American Farmland Trust to assist local trusts, including the Merced County Farmland and Open Space Trust, make the transactions happen, according to a spokeswoman for the Great Valley Center.

Within two years, Great Valley and the trust hope to have 11 easement projects in the pipeline.

"California's farm and ranch land is being paved over at a rate of 40,000 acres annually," said John McCaul, director of the trust's California Regional Office. "By protecting the best land in these four counties, we are working to slow this rapid loss and are also helping communities to keep agriculture in mind as they plan for future growth."

Administered by the conservation department's Division of Land Resource Protection, the grant is part of the California Farmland Conservancy program, designed to keep the state's most valuable farmland from being converted to nonagricultural uses.

SMALL GRAPE CROP FORECASTED
  
SACRAMENTO - Fewer  grapes will be produced in California this year, according to the season's first forecast.
 
That may be a relief to farmers, who have seen prices fall for both wine grapes and raisin grapes, as a result of large supplies, according to the California Department of Agriculture.
Government forecasters estimate that California's wine grape production will drop 3%, and that the raisin-grape crop will be down by approximately 12%.

The agency added that the production of table grapes is expected to rise "only slightly."

Go back, or read the latest briefs:

TRADE

empty