California’s Central Valley will be left behind no more, its leaders and Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday as the region became the first in the state to meet with the governor to submit its 20-year economic development plan, which aims to boost its agricultural industry and prepare for a key role in the green economy.

The event in West Fresno builds on the governor’s initiative, which he introduced in March, to invest in economic and workforce development with a focus on 13 regions as the state tries to help create more opportunities outside of its traditional jobs centers, such as the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

“A thriving Sierra San Joaquin region is essential to California’s future,” said Ashley Swearengin, chief executive of the Central Valley Community Foundation, which helped bring together the counties in the region to create the 502-page plan, which was funded by the state. She handed a binder with the plan to Newsom during the press conference.

Among other things, the counties of Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare are asking for $58 billion in public and private investments in the region over the next couple of decades, according to a draft of the plan from August. The region, which produces 25% of the nation’s food supply, has an annual output of $70 billion, the plan says.

Despite its agricultural contributions and the major role it’s expected to play in helping generate the state’s renewable energy, 1 in 5 people in the region live below the poverty line, said Swearengin, a former Fresno mayor. “The challenges that confront this region’s families must always be present in our minds.”

The governor said he expects to take the other regions’ plans and release a statewide blueprint in January. The state has set aside $182 million so far in grants to follow through on the plans.

There’s optimism around the state’s focus on regions. Kate Gordon, CEO of California Forward, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the California economy and a former director of the governor’s Office of Planning and Research under Newsom, said “across California, stakeholders are getting together on a thoughtful approach” to creating high-quality jobs.

Gordon added that some people “don’t feel themselves as part of the economy right now,” and that the regions working on their own strategies was “an incredibly inclusive process.”

Newsom acknowledged what he called economic uneasiness among the state’s residents despite fairly low unemployment.