Row Crop Agriculture

Zoom+ Fertilizers applied to row crops can enter the aquifer. © Wes Skiles

Row-crop agriculture is a $5.5 billion dollar business in Florida. Yet, row-crop agriculture can have a detrimental impact on both quality and quantity of Florida's groundwater. Every year, millions of tons of fertilizers and pesticides are applied to fields to improve crop yields, kill insects and prevent disease. Unfortunately, some of these pesticides and fertilizers leach directly underground or enter the aquifer through sinkholes and surface rivers. Like chemicals used in residential landscaping, agricultural fertilizers and pesticides can pollute our drinking water and harm sensitive biological communities at the springs. Row-crop agriculture is also Florida's second largest consumer of groundwater, accounting for significant percentage of the more than 1.5 billion gallons withdrawn from the aquifer for agriculture each day.