Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the local, state and federal response to it are wide ranging, impacting Yuma's biggest and smallest industries.

On Arizona Edition on KAWC, we'll explore the impacts of the coronavirus on the local agriculture industry, which saw markets drop and inventory destroyed.

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted many industries, including Yuma’s agriculture business. 

While farmworkers have stayed on the job during the current global situation, experts say the food services industry, which is responsible for the bulk packaging that goes to restaurants, suppliers, airlines and schools has been affected.

In Yuma, Arizona, the Colorado River is not what it was.  For thousands of years, its raging water deposited rich soil in the delta, creating one of the most verdant agricultural areas in the world.  Today, the river flow is 1 percent of what it was a century ago, but agriculture continues to thrive even as the water needed to maintain it dwindles due to over-allocation and drought. 

Yuma, Arizona provides the majority of winter leafy greens in the U.S. and Salinas, California grows those same crops in the summer.  When harvest periods in the two areas don’t align, it can create a lettuce shortage—like the one that just ended.  For the Arizona Science Desk, Maya Springhawk Robnett reports…

It has been an unusually wet winter thus far for the sunniest city in the world and meteorologists predict the trend will continue.  The recent rainfall in Yuma County is causing problems for local farmers.  Maya Springhawk Robnett of the Arizona Science Desk reports.