After three consecutive years of declining treated farm acreage in California, the initial report of final 2023 application data shows the Golden State’s farmers increased their applications last year, according to data published by Meister Media’s PURE Intel™ platform. Based on historical reporting timelines, PURE Intel projects California farmers will ultimately report a total of 94 to 95 million treated acres of restricted-use product applications in 2023, roughly 5% more than in 2022 and 2% more than 2021.
The full-year 2023 data within PURE Intel provides a number of insights into California agriculture last year, including:
- Consolidation continues. The number of farms reporting at least one application of a restricted-use product in 2023 will be approximately 18,600, which represents a 2% drop from 2022 and nearly 14% fewer than in 2018.
- Application activity climbed. The average application grew from 29.5 treated acres in 2022 to slightly more than 31 treated acres in 2023 (undoubtedly due in part to the aforementioned consolidation).
- Growth is widespread yet concentrated. We’re projecting year-over-year growth in treated acreage for six of the top 10 ag counties in the state, but Fresno County’s farmers were the key growth drivers in 2023. PURE Intel projects a 10% jump in treated acreage there, which means approximately 15% of all treated acres were produced in that one county. Imperial County is the only other county in the top 10 for which we project double-digital growth, but Imperial only produces about 3.7 million treated acres (roughly 25% of Fresno County’s annual treated acreage).
- Disease pressure reigned. More moisture = more disease pressure, and that bore out again in 2023 as California farmers reported 14% more treated acres of fungicide applications in 2023 vs. 2022. (Herbicides enjoyed 8% growth while adjuvants were up 7% in 2023.)
Secondary crops were key. Treated acres for tree nuts will be up slightly vs. 2022 while volume for grapes will be flat vs. 2022. But grains/cereals, fruiting vegetables, stone fruit, and forage/fodder crops are all on pace for gains greater than 10% compared to 2022. - Glyphosate remains king. Treated acres for glyphosate brands are down over the past few years, but glyphosate active ingredients still combined for approximately 4 million treated acres in 2023 compared to chlorantraniliprole (2.2 million) and abamectin (2 million), which were the second and third most widely applied AIs in 2023.
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