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3.2 AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS This section is a summary of an agricultural economics impact analysis report prepared by Warren Johnson, an independent Agricultural Economics Consultant and Professor at U.C. Davis. This report describes agriculture in San Joaquin County, agriculture in the Valpico area, the Traina Brothers parcel and the study area, and evaluates the consequence of the ultimate conversion of both the small (subject property) and larger (study area) tracts to future use as rural residential homesites. (See Appendix 13.3 for the complete agricultural impact analysis report.) EXISTING SETTING Agriculture in San Joaquin County. Agriculture is a significant economic sector of the San Joaquin County economy. In 1985, the value of agricultural production in San Joaquin County was nearly $700 million, accounting for nearly five percent of the State's agricultural output and making it the ninth leading agricultural County in California (California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1986). Its agricultural sector is diversified among the commodities that flourish, with careful husbandry, on the County's rich endowment of prime, productive delta and alluvial soils. Commoditywise, San Joaquin County is among the State's leading counties in the production of asparagus, onions, fresh and processing tomatoes, almonds, apples, apricots, table and wine grapes, walnuts, dry beans, corn, oats, safflower, sugar beets, eggs, and hogs and pigs. For the major orchard crops planted in the Valpico area, apricots and walnuts, San Joaquin County ranks as the second largest county in bearing apricots (3,051 acres vs. 8,836 acres in Stanislaus) and the largest in bearing walnuts (25,944 acres vs. 24,508 acres in Tulare and 22,310 acres in Stanislaus) (California Crop and Livestock Reporting Service, June, 1986). The 1982 Census of Agriculture (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1984) enumerated 4,475 farms in San Joaquin County, of which 2,733 were classified as farms with orchards. The land area in orchards was estimated to total 151,186 acres, an increase of 13 percent from 134,182 acres in 1978. The size of San Joaquin County orchards is reflected in the following distribution: ORCHARDS BY ACRES HARVESTED 0.1 to 4.9 acres 17 percent 5.0 to 24.9 acres 38 percent 25.0 to 99.9 acres 31 percent 100.0 acres or more 14 percent Agriculture in the Valpico Area. The study area is in a region which reflects both a mix of housing on rural residential parcels, and agricultural (mostly orchard) production on moderate sized farm parcels. The study area is currently zoned GA -10, a zoning designation which requires minimum ten acre agricultural parcels, although a 20 acre parcel minimum is required for homesites in this zone. Examination of maps A through D (from San Joaquin County Planning Department, 1978) contained in Appendix 13.3 and the attached Land Use Map submitted with the Traina Brothers application shows that parcelization has been growing in the study area for the last 35 years. 3.2-1