RD400 - Annual Report of Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Farmland Preservation - December 1, 2009


Executive Summary:
This report presents the primary accomplishments of the Office of Farmland Preservation (OFP) for the period December 1, 2008 through December 1, 2009.

Significant accomplishments for this reporting period include the following:

• OFP continued to work with key agricultural, conservation and governmental partners to refine the allocation process for state matching funds to local purchase of development rights (PDR) programs.

• To date, $4.75 million has been allocated to 15 local PDR programs.

• OFP worked with local PDR programs to permanently preserve almost 1,220 acres of working farmland in seven localities. OFP provided $1.23 million of the $4.41 million in purchase price and transaction costs paid for these easements.

• OFP delivered 19 presentations/workshops to a wide variety of audiences. Topics included OFP, PDR programs, farmland preservation tools/techniques, the federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program (FRPP), conservation easements, use value assessment, the Virginia Farm Link Program and Lease of Development Rights.

• OFP provided additional technical assistance to farmers, local and state governments, agricultural and conservation organizations, concerned citizens and others through the updating of information on the OFP Web page, a new brochure, the OFP travel display, and by phone.

• OFP continued to oversee the Virginia Farm Link database. Since May 2008, 61 active farm owners have received 681 individual requests from 218 active farm seekers interested in discussing various transition options with them.

• OFP conducted a survey of 24 farm owners participating in the database to determine the effectiveness of the database.

• OFP has allocated $41,210 to Virginia Cooperative Extension since December 2008 designed to help farm families and their service providers transition farms and farming operations to the next generation.

The amount of state funding for local PDR programs has continued to decline in FY 2010, and this trend also is seen at the local level. Given the increasingly difficult state and local budgets, however, OFP still expects to see some additional demand for technical assistance from localities interested in developing new PDR programs. VDACS is currently in the process of allocating the $400,000 available in state matching funds to local PDR programs for FY 2010. Nine localities with more than $42 million available in local matching funds ($8,241,420 for FY 2010, and $33,878,972 from previous years) submitted their fiscal and program certification applications by the October 23, 2009 deadline.

In addition to existing local PDR programs, OFP expects to see continued interest from other localities that would like to explore developing new PDR programs. Currently, Bedford, Hanover, Madison, Rockingham, and Washington Counties are in the process of exploring the creation of new PDR ordinances. OFP is still working to meet the goal of having a total of 30 local PDR programs established by 2010, though this goal is made more difficult by the lack of state matching funds as an incentive, and the current local budget crisis.

OFP also plans to continue our expansion of farm transition efforts in the future. In addition to providing workshop funding to Virginia Cooperative Extension, and to any other applicant, OFP plans to develop and deliver its own farm transition workshop series in early 2010. Three dairy families have agreed to participate in this pilot effort, which will be held between January 28 and March 18, 2010. OFP also plans to implement many of the recommendations made as part of the farm owner survey of the Virginia Farm Link database, and to continue the use of a summer intern to track results from the Virginia Farm Link database, and to provide additional feedback from active farm owners and seekers as to ways to improve farm transition efforts.