Reservoir Farms brings its ag tech research incubator to Yuma

Reservoir Farms is expanding its ag tech incubator program into Yuma, Arizona, with a field research location slated to begin operations Oct. 1 ahead of the southwest’s fall and winter vegetable production season.

According to a press release from the company, the Yuma site marks its first expansion outside California and is being developed in collaboration with the University of Arizona’s Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture (YCEDA), the Yuma Agricultural Center (YAC), Western Growers and John Deere.

The site provides tech startups with access to approximately 500 acres at the Yuma Agricultural Center for testing automation and other agricultural technologies in commercial desert vegetable production from October 2026 through March 2027.

Yuma County is one of the nation’s largest specialty crop production regions, producing an estimated 90% of American leafy greens during the winter months. The area serves as a complementary production region to California’s Salinas Valley, with many vegetable crops grown year-round.

Tanya Hodges, executive director of the Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, said the collaboration gives technology developers an opportunity to evaluate new tools under commercial desert production conditions while working alongside growers, researchers and industry partners.

Walt Duflock, Western Grower’s senior vp of AgTech Innovation, said testing technologies under commercial specialty crop conditions helps ensure they are able to address growers’ operational needs.

Reservoir Farms opened its first location in Salinas, California, in March, followed by a second site in California’s wine country in April. The company said the Arizona pilot is the first step in expanding its testing model into additional specialty crop production regions.