RD371 - Annual Report of Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Farmland Preservation - December 1, 2013


Executive Summary:
*This report was replaced in its entirety by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on November 26, 2014.

This report presents the primary accomplishments of the Office of Farmland Preservation (OFP) for the period of December 1, 2012 through December 1, 2013.

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, $7.65 million has been allocated to 18 local PDR programs;

• To date, OFP has worked with local PDR programs to permanently preserve 6,334.76 acres of working farm and forest lands in 12 localities. OFP provided $5.85 million of the $16.40 million in total purchase price and transaction costs paid for these easements;

• OFP delivered 11 presentations/workshops to a wide variety of audiences. Topics included OFP, PDR programs, farmland preservation tools/techniques, conservation easements, use value assessment, farmland loss data and the Virginia Farm Link program;

• OFP continued to oversee the Virginia Farm Link database. Since May 2008, 140 active farm owners have received 1,853 individual requests from 567 active farm seekers interested in discussing various transition options with them;

• OFP has allocated $122,410 to Virginia Cooperative Extension since December 2008 for workshops designed to help farm families and their service providers transition farms and farming operations to the next generation; and

• OFP continued collaboration with the Virginia Farm Bureau Young Farmers on the “Pilot Farm Link and Transition Workshops” and the development of the Certified Farm Seekers (CFS) Program. A total of five farm seekers have been certified, and another 61 farm seekers have submitted applications for the program.

Effective July 25, 2013, the coordinator of OFP, who served in this capacity since the office opened in January 2007, was promoted to serve as VDACS’ director of the Office of Policy, Planning and Research. As a result, OFP activities were limited. A new coordinator for OFP is expected to start work on December 10, 2013.