FAIRFIELD -- Solano County has three primary tines as part of its ongoing Strategic Initiative for Agriculture - all focused on sustainability and growth of the county's $1.7 billion farming and ranching industry.
The challenge is balancing growth - urban and agriculture - while protecting agricultural lands, and what many view is Solano County's identity. After all, agriculture is the largest land use in the county.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is the funding it takes to bring the vision to fruition. There are resources, but all have positives and negatives. The county creating an environment for private ag investment will have to play a part.
County Agriculture Commissioner Ed King, on Wednesday, said the estimated value to the county ag economy goes well beyond just the production value of the crops and livestock produced in Solano. That value alone, in 2024, was $437.938 million, the annual Crop & Livestock Report states.
The full value includes everything from crop processing to trucking and transportation to the dozens of other support industries tied to ag. It also includes the direct farming aspects of agri-tourism and what the county hopes will be expansion of local products going directly to schools, hospitals, prisons, food banks and other similar agencies in need of food supplies.
That was one of the opportunities discussed in the Economic Development section of the Strategic Initiative.
It also highlighted specifically the Dixon Industrial-Agriculture Services District, also referred to as the Northeast Dixon Agricultural Service Area. The district is 721 acres zoned for compatible industrial and agricultural uses.
The initiative notes possible uses as olive oil processing, slaughterhouse, hop pelletizing facility, bio-fuel firms and as an ag-tech demonstration site. Ag-tech incubation was a common theme, especially since UC Davis is nearby. Farm business incubation such as pilot study test plots and hoop houses also was mentioned.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday received a presentation on the status of the initiative, which is funded with a $500,000 Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation planning grant administered through the state Department of Conservation.
"It is our intention, as things stand right now, to be back before you in a year's time with a report and recommendations," King told the board.
In the meantime, King and a group of consultants helping the county build an agricultural vision - Trish Kelly with Valley Vision; Serena Unger with Urban Rural Regional Strategies, and Lon Hatamiya, The Hatamiya Group - gave the board a status report.
The three primary categories are land use, infrastructure and economic development.
The county wants to develop a Land Use Policy Assessment & Action Plan, with the objective of establishing "an ongoing commitment between the cities and the county to develop cooperative visions and plans that consider agricultural conservation as a regional priority while balancing growth."
It would guide the county to:
* Develop "farms under threat" mapping criteria and scenarios
* Develop agricultural mitigation program implementation measures
* Consider expansion of the ag reserve overlay
* Explore options for balancing housing needs and ag preservation with a transfer of development rights (TDR) program
* Review efficacy of the orderly growth ordinance in preventing ag land conversions and consider potential ordinance amendments and/or alternatives while balancing countywide economic goals.
* Consider establishing a Solano County Division of Conservation.
As for the infrastructure section, officials said the county first must know what exists in the county, and to extrapolate the needs. It would include an understanding, among other things, of increased demands on water, rural roadways, farm-to-market routes and energy supplies and capacity and farm labor housing.
Among the immediate challenges facing the county is the state's update of the Bay-Delta Plan and what that will mean to surface water supplies, and in turn, the potential demand on more groundwater use. Drainage capacity and management are also issues to address.
The ag infrastructure picture has been linked to the county's desire to develop a utility master plan.
The county also wants to use the initiative findings to help develop a comprehensive Agriculture Economic Development Plan.
The strategic initiative highlights a number of areas the county can explore.
Among this is the concept of multi-functional land use such as "adapting production agriculture land uses to provide multiple benefits simultaneously, such as food production, expanded market opportunities, energy generation, etc."
Potential opportunities include ecosystem services, supply chain support, agritourism, on-farm value added activities, direct-to-consumer sales, expand options for growing food and beverage processing businesses, food aggregation and distribution.
"Consider supporting a mechanism for collecting, combining, and delivering food products from multiple producers to larger buyers or institutions," the report states.
Also to be explored are agri-engineering, automation - such as drones and robotics - precision agriculture, and food system architecture and logistics, which is supporting efficient design, coordination and movement of food from production to consumption.