USDA TO PROVIDE $30 MILLION TO PROTECT FARMLAND

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2001--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced today that he is making $30 million available to help communities purchase conservation easements to protect precious farmland. All of the funds were provided by provisions in the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000.

"We must treat the land itself as our most precious commodity. " Glickman said. "As our cities continue to grow into neighboring rural areas, more farmland is in danger. Once developed, productive farmland with rich topsoil will be lost forever."

To participate in USDA's Farmland Protection Program, landowners agree to limit the use of their land for nonagricultural purposes and have pending offers for acquisition of agricultural conservation easements.

Qualifying farmland must be:

• included in a pending offer from a non-governmental organization, state, tribe, or local farmland protection program;
• privately owned;
• covered by a conservation plan;
• large enough to sustain agricultural production;
• accessible to markets for what the land produces;
• surrounded by parcels of land that can support long-term agricultural production.

The Farmland Protection Program was established in the 1996 Farm Bill. A request for proposals will be published in the Federal Register on January 22 and posted on the web at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov.

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