Yuma Ag Center serves the community since early 1900s

This week in our home grown segment we learn more about the Yuma Agriculture Center which has been in Yuma since 1906.

Even though the center has been in Yuma for so long, many people still don’t know what it does and that the center is world renowned.

The Yuma Ag Center has been making huge steps in the agriculture industry since the early 1900s, helping to evolve farming into the billion dollar industry it is.

Right now the center is currently doing a lot of research with mechanization due to lack of labor so automation and computer technology are big areas of study.

One major advancement in the ag industry was automated machines for thinning lettuce. The first prototype was built right here in Yuma by Mark Simmonsm one of the Ag Center facility members.

In the early 1900s the center was researching ways to improve soil health and salinity levels due to the fields being so close to the Colorado river.

“It is a very respected research station across the world a lot of people know about in the area research unfortunately our community does not know that we exist but it’s important for young people to also know that we do exist and that there are a lot of careers in agriculture for them to look at and we were and they’re welcome to come visit us here anytime they like to,” Humberto Hernandez, farm superintendent at Yuma Agriculture Center told News 11.

The center, which was originally on Avenue B and eighth street is now located on eighth street and Somerton Avenue.

Its always been an experimental station for the University of Arizona.

The main mission is to serve the farming community and the people around the community as a whole. We report on a lot of of what the Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture does but this is a separate entity to the Yuma Ag Center. They both work together with growers to find answers to our agriculture problems.