Agricultural Economy

The agricultural leg occurs within the unincorporated lands outside of the Hanford Site.  Here, the principal land use is commercial "dryland" and "irrigated" agriculture with its related industries such as storage, shipping, processing, and sales of chemicals and equipment. Commercial agriculture, undertaken at a scale directed at the export market, is an intensive land use requiring:

· Vast acreages of land (especially for dryland crops);

· Dependable and large supplies of water (for irrigated crops);

· An absence of adjacent incompatible uses;

· Major storage, processing and transportation infrastructure at strategic locations;

· A supply of employees.

The agricultural industry in the Pacific Northwest generally, and in eastern Washington specifically, has these resources as well as direct rail and water transportation routes to major saltwater ports.  As a result it is ideally situated to serve the huge populations of the Pacific Rim countries. 

Major crops in Benton County are wheat, corn, potatoes, apples, cherries, hops, mint, alfalfa hay, wine grapes and beef cattle.  The employment base for this industry generally lives in the outlying rural areas of the county, in small cities such as Prosser and Benton City, and in unincorporated rural communities such as Finley, Paterson, Plymouth, and Whitstran. The State provides technical research and support through the Agricultural Research and Experiment Station just north of Prosser. 

The agricultural leg of the local economy is at present the smaller of the two legs, though it is also the more table: it is market driven with an ever expanding customer base; its resource base (soil and water) is renewable; at the regional level it is an integrated cluster of economic components.

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