Census of Agriculture – Agroforestry Data
How many people are practicing agroforestry? Where is agroforestry practiced? Currently, the only national datasets on agroforestry implementation in the U.S. are in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) databases. One dataset comes from a single question in the 2017 Census of Agriculture (COA), which is administered by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
The Yes/No question asked, “At any time in 2017, did this operation practice alley cropping, silvopasture, or forest farming, or have riparian forest buffers or windbreaks?” Because this question combines multiple agroforestry practices together, it doesn’t provide information about specific agroforestry practices. These data also cannot be compared with an earlier 2012 COA agroforestry question, which only asked about silvopasture and alley cropping. However, the 2017 COA question does provide some key statistics:
- In 2017, 30,853 farm operations responded that they had at least one agroforestry practice, representing 1.5% of all farm operations in the U.S.
- The states with the highest number of farms with an agroforestry practice include Texas, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Virginia, and Oregon.
- When viewed as a percentage of farms with an agroforestry practice at the state level, the top five states are Vermont (7.2%), Maine (4.8%), Hawaii (4.7%), Massachusetts (4.1%), and New Hampshire (4.1%), while the lowest state percentages were found in Arizona (0.2%), Nevada (0.3%), Utah (0.3%), Texas (0.5%), North Dakota (0.6%), and Wyoming (0.6%).
More detailed information and analysis of the information provided by this 2017 Census of Agriculture question and other USDA datasets are provided in Agroforestry extent in the United States: A review of national datasets and inventory efforts.
When sharing this information, please cite: Smith, M.M., G. Bentrup, T. Kellerman, K. MacFarland, R. Straight, and L. Ameyaw. 2022. Agroforestry extent in the United States: A review of national datasets and inventory efforts. Agriculture. 12(5),726.
The supplementary material for this article provides a compilation of state maps that show percent and number of farms practicing agroforestry by county, along with other information.
Other U.S. Maps:
- Number of farms by state
- Percent of farms by state
- Number of farms by county
- Percent of farms by county
Compellation of State Data and Maps
| State | Number of farms with at least one agroforestry practice | Percent of farms with at least one agroforestry practice | State Fact Sheet | Map of number of farms with at least one agroforestry practice | Map of percent of farms with at least one agroforestry practice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 635 | 1.6 | PNG | PNG | |
| Alaska | 35 | 3.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Arizona | 42 | 0.2 | PNG | PNG | |
| Arkansas | 585 | 1.4 | PNG | PNG | |
| California | 1064 | 1.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Colorado | 361 | 0.9 | PNG | PNG | |
| Connecticut | 188 | 3.4 | PNG | PNG | |
| Delaware | 48 | 2.1 | PNG | PNG | |
| Florida | 803 | 1.7 | PNG | PNG | |
| Georgia | 969 | 2.3 | PNG | PNG | |
| Hawaii | 347 | 4.7 | PNG | PNG | |
| Idaho | 317 | 1.3 | PNG | PNG | |
| Illinois | 604 | 0.8 | PNG | PNG | |
| Indiana | 594 | 1.0 | PNG | PNG | |
| Iowa | 822 | 1.0 | PNG | PNG | |
| Kansas | 438 | 0.7 | PNG | PNG | |
| Kentucky | 1028 | 1.4 | PNG | PNG | |
| Louisiana | 349 | 1.3 | PNG | PNG | |
| Maine | 362 | 4.8 | PNG | PNG | |
| Maryland | 473 | 3.8 | PNG | PNG | |
| Massachusetts | 299 | 4.1 | PNG | PNG | |
| Michigan | 957 | 2.0 | PNG | PNG | |
| Minnesota | 1011 | 1.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Mississippi | 542 | 1.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Missouri | 1311 | 1.4 | PNG | PNG | |
| Montana | 298 | 1.1 | PNG | PNG | |
| Nebraska | 458 | 1.0 | PNG | PNG | |
| Nevada | 11 | 0.3 | PNG | PNG | |
| New Hampshire | 170 | 4.1 | PNG | PNG | |
| New Jersey | 263 | 2.7 | PNG | PNG | |
| New Mexico | 201 | 0.8 | PNG | PNG | |
| New York | 1187 | 3.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| North Carolina | 1162 | 2.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| North Dakota | 155 | 0.6 | PNG | PNG | |
| Ohio | 1156 | 1.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Oklahoma | 514 | 0.7 | PNG | PNG | |
| Oregon | 1467 | 3.9 | PNG | PNG | |
| Pennsylvania | 1657 | 3.1 | PNG | PNG | |
| Rhode Island | 37 | 3.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| South Carolina | 667 | 2.7 | PNG | PNG | |
| South Dakota | 252 | 0.8 | PNG | PNG | |
| Tennessee | 938 | 1.3 | PNG | PNG | |
| Texas | 1347 | 0.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Utah | 61 | 0.3 | PNG | PNG | |
| Vermont | 492 | 7.2 | PNG | PNG | |
| Virginia | 1526 | 3.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Washington | 1075 | 3.0 | PNG | PNG | |
| West Virginia | 384 | 1.6 | PNG | PNG | |
| Wisconsin | 1120 | 1.7 | PNG | PNG | |
| Wyoming | 71 | 0.6 | PNG | PNG | |
| TOTAL | 30835 | 1.5 | PNG | PNG | |
| Please cite as Smith et al. 2022 when using state fact sheets and images | |||||
