Software has the Silicon Valley, but ag technology isn't centered in one place

The Sacramento region may be an emerging agricultural technology hub, but creating just one hub for California agriculture may not be practical, said an article in the November 2011 issue of Comstock magazine.

“With a state a thousand miles long and ecosystems ranging from rain forests to arid deserts, and cropping patterns affiliated with all those things, you will not find a single location to do what needs to be done,” said Don Klingborg, who directs the advocacy and county partnerships effort at the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

That’s why the university has nine extension centers across the state — someone needs to make sure that the ideas that come out of campus labs will actually work in the field, the article noted.

“Once it has gone through that and you have done the fine-tuning, then it is time to do the transfer into the private sector,” Klingborg said.

A new generation of farmers emerges
Linda DuBois, Comstock

There are a significant number of younger Californians very interested in food, and that leads them to an interest in agriculture, said UC Davis professor Tom Tomich, director of the UC's Agriculture Sustainability Institute and of the statewide UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

To meet this demand, UC Davis launched a new bachelor’s degree program in sustainable agriculture and food systems.

“There’s a real emphasis on experiential learning because so many of the students don’t come from a farm background,” Tomich says.

Nurturing a new crop of farmers is imperative because California agriculture is crucial to the state’s economy and to the nation’s food security, says Craig McNamara, president of the California Board of Food and Agriculture.

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