Tampa and Hillsborough County Agriculture Guide

Hillsborough County, which surrounds Tampa, sold $703,994,000 of farm products in 2022, the third-highest total of any Florida county, and 94 percent of that came from crops.

The USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture profile for Hillsborough County counts 1,992 farms covering 201,712 acres (USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture). Fruits, tree nuts and berries alone brought in $440,461,000, the highest of any county in Florida, and strawberries occupied 11,224 acres. The county also ranks second in Florida for aquaculture sales, at $28,639,000, and sixth for both vegetables and nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod. The profile describes the whole of Hillsborough County rather than Tampa city limits, and the county farm institutions named on this page sit outside the city, in Plant City, Dover, Wimauma and Seffner.

Figures in the table come from the same Hillsborough County profile (USDA NASS). Forage for hay covered 14,819 acres, more land than strawberries, but fruit and berry sales made up about 63 percent of the Hillsborough County total.

Hillsborough County had 12 percent fewer farms in 2022 than in 2017, yet land in farms rose 12 percent and the market value of what those farms sold rose 57 percent.

The Census of Agriculture profile shows the average Hillsborough farm growing 27 percent to 101 acres, and net cash farm income rising 79 percent to $185,759,000 (USDA NASS, 2022 profile). Those changes point to fewer, larger operations near Tampa rather than a simple retreat of farmland. The profile also shows how small most farms are: 874 of the 1,992 Hillsborough farms sold less than $2,500 of products in 2022, while 316 sold $100,000 or more.

Four in ten Hillsborough producers are 65 or older, and nearly a third are new to farming. The county counts 3,544 producers, 1,423 of them 65 or older and 1,122 classed as new and beginning farmers; 1,468 are women and 371 have military service (USDA NASS). Only 5 percent of Hillsborough farms sell directly to consumers. The 2022 profile is the most recent county census of farms, so these Hillsborough figures are already four years old as of October 2026.

The 2027 Florida Strawberry Festival runs March 4 to March 14, 2027, in Plant City, celebrating the crop that covered 11,224 acres of Hillsborough County farmland in 2022.

The festival's own site lists the 2027 dates and describes its mission as preserving the agricultural and historical legacy of the Florida strawberry (Florida Strawberry Festival). The berry acreage behind the festival appears in the USDA profile, where land in berries totals 12,146 acres and strawberries account for 11,224 of them (USDA NASS).

The Hillsborough County Agriculture Economic Development Council meets at the Florida Strawberry Growers Association Conference Center, 13138 Lewis Gallagher Rd., Dover (Hillsborough County), and the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Wimauma works on web-based tools that help farmers predict strawberry and tomato yields (UF/IFAS GCREC).

The UF/IFAS Extension office for Hillsborough County, at 5339 County Road 579 in Seffner, is the public source of farm and garden advice for Tampa residents, open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at (813) 744-5519.

The Hillsborough Extension office serves residents and businesses through workshops, publications and media, with program areas that include agriculture, fruit and vegetable production, small farms and alternative enterprises, citrus, urban forestry, lawn and garden, and fisheries and aquaculture (UF/IFAS Extension, Hillsborough County). In September 2026 it posted fall vegetable planting dates for Central Florida, and in October 2026 an article on fall calving for Florida cattle operations, so the same office covers vegetable gardens and cattle operations.

For research and plant problems, the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center at 14625 CR 672, Wimauma, phone (813) 419-6670, runs a plant diagnostic clinic that accepts samples, and it also lists a teaching campus in Plant City (UF/IFAS GCREC). A practical order of contact for a Tampa grower: the Hillsborough Extension office first for general questions, then the Wimauma clinic when a diseased plant sample needs a diagnosis.

Yes: a community garden in Tampa needs a special use permit under Section 27-132 of the City of Tampa Code of Ordinances, and land zoned RS-150, R-100 or RS-75 is not eligible.

The City of Tampa asks anyone planning a community garden to first take the free UF/IFAS Community Garden Specialist Training, connect with the Coalition of Community Gardens, check the zoning of the proposed site on the city's interactive map, and only then contact the city sustainability office about leasing city-owned land (City of Tampa, Community Gardens). Community gardens have been part of Tampa's sustainability and resilience plans since 2021, as Action 2.2.6 of Resilient Tampa (2021) and Goal F1 of the Tampa Climate Action and Equity Plan (2023).

A 2022 USDA grant for the city's community gardens and education initiative ended on July 1, 2025. It left a new garden, West Tampa Grows Healthy, at the city's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Complex, and two cohorts of graduates who earned Urban Agriculture Specialist Certification through the Coalition of Community Gardens (City of Tampa). Because of the zoning exclusion, a check of the Tampa zoning map comes before any planting. Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the USDA, UF/IFAS, Hillsborough County and City of Tampa websites for this Tampa agriculture hub.

Inside Tampa, agriculture is most visible at the Florida State Fairgrounds, 4800 US Highway 301 North, where the 2027 Florida State Fair runs February 4 to 15, while Port Tampa Bay lists fertilizer products and grain among the cargo at its Port Redwing terminal.

The fairgrounds host agriculture programs year round, from livestock competitions and shows to educational clinics, and its agriculture program celebrates Florida horticulture, forestry, dairy, livestock, poultry and aquaculture (Florida State Fair). Cracker Country, a living history museum at the Tampa fairgrounds with structures from the late 1800s, presents Florida's pioneer farm past. The fairgrounds can be reached at (813) 621-7821.

On the waterfront, Port Tampa Bay describes its Port Redwing terminal as handling a cargo mix that includes aggregates, fertilizer products, grain and cement (Port Tampa Bay). At the county level, farm interests have a formal voice through the Hillsborough County Agriculture Economic Development Council, which operates under a Board of County Commissioners motion of February 4, 1998, which has up to 13 members, at least 60 percent of them from major commodity groups, and meets intermittently, in a hybrid virtual and in-person format (Hillsborough County).