What is the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program?
A. The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program provides funds to help purchase development rights to keep productive farmland in use. Working through existing program, USDA joins with State, tribal, or local government to acquire conservation easements or other interests from landowners. USDA provides up to 50 percent of the costs of purchasing the easements. To qualify, farmland must: be part of a pending offer from a State, tribe, or local farmland protection program; be privately owned; have a conservation plan; be large enough to sustain agricultural production; be accessible to markets for what the land produces; have adequate infrastructure and agricultural support services; and have surrounding parcels of land that can support long-term agricultural production.
