Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Cooperative Extension?
University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), is an extension of the University's Agriculture & Natural Resources division (ANR). UCCE has more than 50 county offices throughout California and act as ANR's outreach arm in creating solutions for issues in their local communities.
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2. What does Cooperative Extension do?
In short, a lot. While many of our programs focus on Farm & Agricultural related issues, others provide research and outreach on various other issues including 4-H youth development, Nutrition, Personal Finance and Food Safety Education, Home Horticulture and Pest Management Solutions as well as a range of Environmental Issues. Our commercial agricultural programs range from issues associated with the management of Small Farms, Subtropical Fruit Crops, Greenhouses and Nurseries, Turf and Landscape Businesses, Floriculture and Nursery Industries, with Integrated Pest Management playing a role in all of these areas with the control of pest insects and vertebrate species.
3. Is UC Cooperative Extension part of UCSD?
No. Believe it or not, we get confused very easily with UCSD. While we are connected to them via the University of California umbrella that encompasses Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, UC Cooperative Extension-San Diego is an extension of UC Agriculture & Natural Resources (UC ANR) and exists in every county within California.
4. Is there really that big of an agricultural community in San Diego?
Yes! San Diego county has over 5000 farms, more than any other county in the United States. 68% of those are between 1-9 acres and though the median size farm is just 4 acres, our county's farmers rank number one in both California and the nation in the production value of nursery, floriculture and avocados.
Agriculture here covers 303,889 acres and is a key contributor to San Diego's economy, along with defense, manufacturing, tourism and biotechnology. Our varied topography creates a wide fluctuation of microclimates that allows for nearly 30 different types of vegetation communities. This diversity allows for San Diego to grow over 200 different agricultural commodities from strawberries along the coast, apples in the mountain areas, to palm trees in the desert.
This information was made available by the County of San Diego, Department of Weights and Measures in their 2021 Annual Crop Report.