The Southwest Agriculture Summit is back at Arizona Western College in Yuma this week. For the first time, organizers hosted a Latino Farmer Symposium on Wednesday.
Session topics included finance and assistance programs for socially disadvantaged farmers, technology for crop production and food safety.
“This is very important to have this Latino farmer conference in Yuma because all this region that we share with California and Mexico shares all the history and heritage of the Hispanic people, people in farming and so on," said Dr. Jairo Diaz, a director at the University of California Desert Research and Extension Center in El Centro. "It’s so important to work with these Latino farmers too.”
Enrique Quiroz recently started working at his family’s cotton farm, Rancho Quiroz, in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. He said wants to learn as much as possible from ag industry leaders.
“I’m here today because I thought it would be a good place to network and make opportunities here,” Quiroz said.
The summit includes breakout sessions and the annual Harvest Dinner on Thursday and an ag tour on Friday.
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Stay tuned to KAWC for more coverage from this year's Southwest Ag Summit.
