FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pilot at Yuma Agricultural Center Opens Oct. 1 in Partnership with University of Arizona, Western Growers and John Deere; 500 Acres Available for Startup Trials
YUMA, Ariz. (AgPR) July 9, 2026 — Reservoir Farms today announced a pilot expansion into Yuma, Arizona, with a new location set to be live and operational Oct. 1, 2026, in time for the fall and winter growing season. It is the company’s first expansion outside of California.
The pilot 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. It extends Reservoir Farms’ on-farm innovation model into one of the nation’s most important specialty crop regions.
“Expanding our model into Arizona is a signal that the Reservoir Farms model is working for both growers and startups,” said Danny Bernstein, founder and CEO of Reservoir. “We help rugged physical AI move faster from concept to commercial impact by creating real-world environments for testing and iteration, and following crop production across the largest growing regions.”
Yuma County generates close to $3 billion in annual agricultural production and grows an estimated 90% of the nation’s leafy greens from November through March. The region has long been considered Salinas’s “sister city” — the place production moves to when the Salinas season ends. That makes Yuma the ideal proving ground for technology built to work in arid conditions.
Through the pilot, Reservoir startups will be able to run trials in commercial desert vegetable production during the winter growing season, from Oct. 1, 2026, through March 2027, using 500 accessible acres at the Yuma Agricultural Center to advance automation in specialty crops. Desert agriculture brings its own distinct set of hard problems — heat, water and the demands of large-scale winter vegetable production — and the technologies that prove themselves here will be stronger for it.
For the more than 20 startups already working at Reservoir Farms in Salinas, the Arizona pilot extends the testing calendar. Until now, the growing season set natural limits on when and what companies could test. With the Yuma site, startups have the option to extend their engagement into a year-round cycle — following the crops from one region to the next and iterating without seasonal pauses. The result is more real-world reps across more conditions in less calendar time.
Reservoir Farms is advancing its Arizona site in collaboration with the University of Arizona’s Yuma Agricultural Center, Western Growers, John Deere and partners across Arizona.
“The Yuma Agricultural Center provides a living laboratory for evaluating emerging technologies under the real production conditions that define desert agriculture,” said Tanya Hodges, executive director of the Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture. “This pilot collaboration with Reservoir gives innovators the chance to test and refine tools in specialty crops alongside the growers, researchers and industry partners who know this region best.”
“Reservoir Farms makes sure agtech is built for the real world, not the lab,” said Walt Duflock, senior vice president of AgTech Innovation at Western Growers. “Our growers operate in some of the most demanding specialty crop environments in the country, and they need technologies they can rely on. The work we’re doing together in Arizona and California keeps innovation grounded in those realities and focused on tools growers can trust.”
Reservoir Farms opened its Salinas location in March and a Wine Country site in April. The company has committed to growing this model across California, Arizona and other key production regions. Arizona is the first step beyond California.
“We’re just getting started,” Bernstein said.
About Reservoir
Reservoir is an agricultural innovation center and venture capital fund focused on helping agtech startups succeed where agriculture happens—in the field. Reservoir Farms are the world’s first on-farm robotics innovation centers, starting in the Salinas Valley and expanding to other key regions across California and the American West. Reservoir VC backs startups solving real problems in specialty crops and the rugged physical AI stack. By combining R&D space, hands-on grower input, and early-stage capital, Reservoir helps turn promising ideas into tools for the growers who feed the world. Learn more at https://reservoir.co.
About YCEDA
The Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture (YCEDA) is an innovative public-private partnership that connects top scientists to the desert agricultural industry. Together, YCEDA puts science to work developing solutions to the challenges of arid-land crop production. Its work focuses on high-priority issues identified by industry stakeholders, including increasing production efficiencies through disease and water management, crop yield maximization, food safety, and technology utilization.
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Media Contacts:
Tanya Hodges
Executive Director
Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture
928-271-9560
thodges@arizona.edu
desertagsolutions.org
Danny Bernstein
Founder and CEO
The Reservoir
danny@reservoir.co
reservoir.co
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