Funder: California Department of Food and Agriculture, Specialty Crop Block Grant Program
Partners: Santa Clara County Open Space Authority; Silicon Valley Land Conservancy; Santa Clara County Farm Bureau; USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS); Guadalupe-Coyote Resource Conservation District (RCD); Loma Prieta RCD; Santa Clara County Agriculture Commissioner’s Office
Date of project: 2013-2016
Located on the outskirts of San Jose, the 7,400-acre Coyote Valley makes up the last remaining farmland of the Santa Clara Valley, once known as “The Valley of the Heart’s Delight” for its abundant agriculture and orchards.
This project aims to revitalize specialty crop production in the Coyote Valley as a means to both strengthen the economic viability of Coyote Valley farmers and to strengthen linkages of local communities to their nearby farmland.
Project goals:
- Increase the number of specialty crop operations by recruiting and supporting beginning, immigrant and scaling-up farmers.
- Increase specialty crop acreage and profitability by transitioning hay or fallow land with available water to specialty crops and/or by growing higher value specialty crops
- Increase specialty crop acreage and profitability by transitioning hay or fallow land with available water to specialty crops and/or by growing higher value specialty crops
- Enhance natural resource stewardship by adopting new sustainable ag practices (e.g. crop rotations, water conservation, bio-controls) and establishing habitat enhancement (incl. hedgerows)
- Increase sales of Coyote Valley grown specialty crops to local markets (incl. on-farm sales)
Due to be completed in early spring 2016, the project is meeting or exceeding most of its ambitious goals.
Relevant Publications and other projects
Coyote Valley Work
CV Sub Projects
Coyote Valley Feasibility Study
