Idaho Agriculture Economic Analysis

 An economic analysis recently released by the University of Idaho shows agriculture making a huge contribution to Idaho’s economic base. Three U of I agricultural economists conducted what they called an “economic base analysis” tabulating economic activity in all sectors depending on ag. Here’s Dr. Philip Watson to explain. “We found, using an economic base model, which is a fairly standard type of analysis to do a contribution analysis that agriculture is the single largest contributor to the economic base in the State of Idaho. We included in our ag sector production agriculture as well as food processing, so the potato processors would also be included in our ag sectors.”

 Dr. Watson also discovered that this ag success is not just an economic glitch.

 (Watson) “We found not only is agriculture the largest single contributor to the economic base, but it’s also been fairly stable over the past 5 years as opposed to some of the other large sectors in the Idaho economy.”

 Meaning all the tech sectors such as Micron, Hewlett-Packard and the rest. Pretty impressive. And, depending on one single but incredibly important variable…(Watson) “Predicated on the idea that we can have access to water, agriculture will be strong well into the future of Idaho.”