Specialty Crops Puerto Rico Volume 2 • Subject Series • Part 9 AC-12-S-9 Issued February 2015 United States Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary National Agricultural Statistics Service Joseph T. Reilly, Administrator Introduction PURPOSE AND SCOPE The 2012 Census of Agriculture Specialty Crop report for Puerto Rico provides data that supplement the 2012 Census of Agriculture, Volume 1, Geographic Area Series, Part 52 publication (http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/). Section 101 of the Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act of 2004 (7 U.S.C. §1621 note) and amended under section 10010 of the Agricultural Act of 2014, Public Law 113-79 (the Farm Bill) defines specialty crops as “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and horticulture and nursery crops (including floriculture).” Eligible plants must be cultivated or managed and used by people for food, medicinal purposes, and/or aesthetic gratification to be considered specialty crops. This is the second time NASS has summarized and published the census of agriculture data for specialty crops. AUTHORITY The 2012 Census of Agriculture is required by law under the “Census of Agriculture Act of 1997,” Public Law 105-113 (Title 7, United States Code, Section 2204g). The law directs the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct a census of agriculture every fifth year, covering the prior year. FARM DEFINITION The census definition of a farm for Puerto Rico is any place from which $500 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. DATA COMPARABILITY The data are comparable between the 2012 and 2007 censuses. Dollar figures are expressed in current dollars and have not been adjusted for inflation or deflation. REFERENCE PERIOD Crop production and sales are measured for the calendar year 2012. TABLES Table 1 shows the number of farms, acres harvested, value of sales, and the percent of the total value of crop sales accounted for by specialty crops for Puerto Rico. RESPONDENT CONFIDENTIALITY In keeping with the provisions of Title 7 of the United States Code, no data are published that would disclose information about the operations of an individual farm or ranch. All tabulated data are subject to an extensive disclosure review prior to publication. Any tabulated item that identifies data reported by a respondent or allows a respondent’s data to be accurately estimated or derived was suppressed and coded with a ‘D’. However, the number of farms reporting an item is not considered confidential information and is provided even though other information is withheld. DATA PRODUCTS The 2012 Census of Agriculture Specialty Crop publication and other census products are available on the NASS website at www.agcensus.usda.gov. SPECIAL STUDIES AND CUSTOM TABULATIONS Special studies such as the 2012 Census of Agriculture Specialty Crop publication provide supplemental information to the 2012 Census of Agriculture. Results are published on the Internet. Custom-designed tabulations may be developed when data are not published elsewhere. These tabulations are developed to individual user specifications on a cost-reimbursable basis and shared with the public. Quick Stats 2.0, NASS’s online database that allows data users to build customized queries, should be investigated before requesting a custom tabulation. All special studies and custom tabulations are subject to a thorough disclosure review prior to release to prevent the disclosure of any individual respondent data. Requests for custom tabulations may be submitted via the Internet from the NASS home page, by mail, or by e-mail to: DataLab National Agricultural Statistics Service Room 5307 1400 Independence Ave, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250 – 2054 or Datalab@nass.usda.gov Table 1. Specialty Crops - Puerto Rico: 2012 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : : : Value of sales : Percent of crop Crop : Farms1/ : Cuerdas harvested : (dollars) : sales2/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : : All crops : 9,367 134,162 271,320,069 100 All specialty crops : 8,933 91,892 250,548,902 92.3 Coffee3/ : 4,478 33,213 29,273,215 10.8 Pineapples3/ : 42 330 1,905,743 0.7 Plantains3/ : 3,628 22,719 80,505,103 29.7 Bananas3/ : 1,474 6,639 12,106,293 4.5 Pulse crops : 750 1,545 2,356,580 0.9 Root crops : 1,242 2,631 8,191,970 3 Fruits and coconuts3/ : 1,926 14,959 31,541,191 11.6 Vegetables : 1,528 7,014 47,134,996 17.4 Nursery crops : 657 2,842 37,533,811 13.8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/ Data are for farms with sales of specialty crops 2/ May not add due to rounding 3/ Cuerdas in production