Chapter 12 – Agriculture and Fishing

Agriculture data used to come from the U.S. Census of Agriculture done with the Decennial census in 1980 and 1990, and then every 5 years, ending in 2007.  The Agriculture Census was not collected in 2012, and it does not look like there will be one in 2017 either.  While the CNMI has farms, it does not publish annual statistics on its products.  The Division of Fish and Wildlife is responsible for collecting and publishing data on fish and fisheries, but has not supplied data for the yearbook since 2004.

The number of farms in the CNMI increased from 299 to 346 between 1980 and 1990, but 1997 showed only 103 farms, while 2002 recorded 214 farms, and 2007 saw 256 farms.  The average size of farms de-creased from about 41 acres in 1980 to 16 in 2007.

The number of livestock farms with cattle was 36 in 1990, 29 in 1997, 55 in 2002 and 63 in 2007.  The number of animals decreased from 4,500 to 1,400, partly as a result of decreases on Tinian.  In 1990, CNMI had 66 hog farms, which was about the same as in 2002 and 2007.  In 2010, about 1,500 hogs were counted.  Small numbers of goats and horses were also enumerated.

The average sales from farms was about $1 million in 1990 (in 1990 dollars) and about $2.4 in 2010 (in 2010 dollars.  In 2007, 106 farms sold root crops, 110 sold vegetables and melons, 115 sold fruits and nuts, 98 sold livestock, and smaller numbers sold poultry and eggs, and fish and aquaculture products.