The State : Food Production Up 9%

California’s food production totaled about 51 million tons in 1984, a 9% increase over the previous year when production was limited by a federal program that took some land out of production to stabilize prices, state agriculture officials said. L. Odell Larson, head of the state Department of Food and Agriculture’s Crop and Livestock Reporting Service, estimated that field crop production alone last year was 26.1 million tons, 19% above the 1983 harvest. Wheat, corn, rice and cotton showed sharp increases, Larson said, along with hay, dry beans and sugar beets. California has an estimated $14-billion-a-year agriculture industry, the largest in the nation.