YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – The August week in Yuma is coming to a close with the final day of the Southwest Agriculture Summit.

The summit brought together many producers to discuss various issues facing the local agricultural industry and develop action plans to resolve those issues.

The day began with a morning keynote panel featuring farmers, agricultural experts, and industry leaders.

One of the panelists, Arizona Agriculture Commissioner Paul Brierley, said technology is key to the future of agriculture.

“People think agriculture is kind of bad for technology, but it's not. It's really, really hard. It's not like a factory where every 10 seconds a widget comes in and does something. .The weather is there, the rain is there, the birds are there,” Arizona Department of Agriculture Director Paul Brierley said.

Panel moderator Stephen Alameda also touched on technology, saying it's not easy, but it's essential for farms to survive.

“How big does a company need to be to embrace these technologies and things that are coming, to start thinking about leveraging these things and passing these things on to future generations? There needs to be a level of scale where we need to recognize that.” It's expensive, but it will be essential for survival,” Alameda said.

Another in-depth session covered the drought the country is currently facing.

Hank Auza, president of the Yuma County Water Users Association, said water is essential for Yuma County, which ships about 3 billion salads a week.

“In a climate where we can grow vegetables when others can't, the Imperial Valley is no different, but most of that comes from Yuma. So agriculture uses 70 percent of the water. However, Yuma only uses about 20 percent of Arizona's allotment,'' Auza said.

Following the summit, Agriculture Week concludes with a Harvest Dinner that celebrates all producers and benefits agricultural education initiatives and scholarships.