Official Site of The State of New Jersey
About NJDA
Welcome to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA), an agency which oversees programs that serve virtually all New Jersey citizens. The Department was established in 1916 and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016. Click here to learn more.
One of the Department’s major priorities is to promote, protect and serve the Garden State’s diverse agriculture and agribusiness industries.
In addition to the programs we offer to support production agriculture, NJDA also manages programs that:
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feed schoolchildren,
- distribute surplus federal foods to soup kitchens and pantries that serve our needy citizens,
- conserve precious soil and water resources,
- protect farmland from development and preserve it for future agricultural use,
- expand export markets for fresh and processed agricultural products, and promote our commercial fishing industry, and,
- administer the complete program of agriculture, food and natural resource education,which includes the State FFA Association.
The statute under which the Department of Agriculture is granted its authority is New Jersey Statutes Annotated (N.J.S.A.) Title 4. This webpage is maintained by the Rutgers School of Law and is updated daily. Rules that have been adopted by the State Board of Agriculture and/or the Secretary of Agriculture are contained in Title 2 of the New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C.). This webpage is maintained by LexisNexis and is updated concurrently with the publication of the printed updates to the New Jersey Administrative Code. The Department of Agriculture may be contacted concerning the nonfunctioning of either of these websites at: contactagriculture@ag.nj.gov or 609-913-6559.
Food and agriculture are New Jersey's third largest industry, behind pharmaceuticals and tourism, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue to the state.
In 2022, the state's almost 10,000 farms generated cash receipts of nearly $1.5 billion. The nursery/greenhouse/sod industry is the leading commodity group, followed by fruits and vegetables, field crops, equine, poultry and eggs, and dairy.
Retaining productive, taxpaying farmland is critically important to all New Jersey residents since agriculture is the largest single source of the scenic vistas throughout the state. Productive farmland covers more than 710,000 acres, with more than 250,000 of those acres being permanently preserved for agricultural use.
Farmers in the Garden State produce more than 100 different kinds of fruits and vegetables for consumers to enjoy either fresh or processed here in New Jersey and elsewhere in the Northeast, in Canada and in many countries around the world. Nationally, New Jersey is one of the top 10 producers of blueberries, cranberries, peaches, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, spinach, squash, as well as in floriculture.
In addition, growers also produce hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of specialty crops that add a unique flavor to the Garden State’s bounty. Vineyards, for example, are a growing segment of the industry, enabling the state's more than 50 vintners to develop a wide variety of award-winning New Jersey wines.
Fish and seafood are also a valuable commodity with tons of bluefish, tilefish, flounder, hake, shellfish and other species harvested annually. With its catch sold here at home and in foreign markets around the world, the commercial fishing industry adds another $185 million to the value of agriculture in New Jersey.