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Pennsylvania Agriculture Stats Now on Web
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Agriculture is one of Pennsylvania's top industries, with more than $2 billion in production helping to create jobs and stimulate the Keystone State's economy. A Web site from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences provides a county-by-county breakdown of agriculture's role in the state's economic health.The site tracks economic and fiscal contributions of production agriculture within each of the state's 67 counties by several standards, including production values over time and by specialty, changes in the number and acres of farms, the number of jobs generated by farming in each county (including spin-off impacts) and assessed value of agricultural land."A lot of people -- citizens, economic development groups and farm organizations, for example -- have shown interest in better understanding the role of agriculture in the local economy," says Martin Shields, community development economist and assistant professor of agricultural and regional economics at Penn State. "This site provides timely information on trends in agriculture, and what the agricultural sector means for that county in terms of income, jobs and local government revenues."According to the Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service, the state has more than 59,000 farms, comprising 7.7 million acres. In 2001, the total value of farm production in the state exceeded $2.1 billion, and the sector provided more than 84,300 jobs.Shields explains that the site draws on several data sources to provide information that people will use in many ways. "First, this information is used to educate local residents and organizations of the role production agriculture plays in a diverse economy," he says. "With an increased understanding, economic development groups are better positioned to provide services that might enhance the local agricultural economy and get a more comprehensive look at its role in the county."Definitions of agriculture can vary according to the data source, making it more difficult to draw inferences based on combined data, Shields explains. For example, agricultural production data from the state have somewhat different coverage than the employment data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, so the two data sets cannot be combined to calculate a county's worker productivity.The site shows the continued importance of agriculture in the state's economy. "We see that production value continues to increase over time, despite the fact that there are fewer farms and acreage," Shields says. "This suggests that farmers are becoming more productive."Visit the Pennsylvania agricultural site: http://agimpact.aers.psu.edu"