Final day of the Southwest Ag Summit

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Ag week in Yuma is coming to a close with the final day of the Southwest Agriculture Summit.

At the summit, many growers came together to discuss various problems facing our local ag industry and created an action plan to solve those issues.

The day began with a morning keynote panel featuring farmers, ag experts, and leaders in the industry.

One panelist, Paul Brierley, the director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture said technology is key for the future of agriculture.

“People think agriculture is sort of adverse to technology, but that’s not the case, it is really really difficult, it’s not like a factory where widgets come in every ten seconds and do something to it it’s out there where you’ve got weather, rain, birds,” said Paul Brierley, Arizona Department of Agriculture Director.

Panel moderator, Steven Alameda, also touched on technology, saying it’s not easy, but it’s essential for a farm to survive.

“In order to embrace these technologies and things that are coming there is a certain amount of size that needs to be appreciated in how big the company needs to be to take advantage of these things, and start looking to pass these things down to future generations. It is expensive, but it’s going to be vital to survival,” said Alameda

Another other in-depth session covered the drought we're currently facing in this country.

Hank Auza, the Yuma County Water Users’ Association President said water is vital for Yuma County as we ship out about 3 billion salads a week.

“In a climate where we can grow vegetables, when nobody else can, Imperial Valley is the same, but majority of it comes out of Yuma, and so yes, ag uses 70 percent of water but Yuma only uses about 20 percent of Arizona's allocation,” said Auza.

Following the summit, Ag week will come to a close with the Harvest Dinner honoring all the growers and benefitting ag education efforts and scholarships.