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Updated: May 21, 2009, 12:33 pm	Share    Print    Email

Albany - Gov. David A. Paterson today announced that the State Agricultural and Farmland Protection Program will provide $23.1 million for the preservation of 8,940 acres of active farmland. The program, administered by the State Department of Agriculture and Markets, assists local municipalities in the purchase of development rights so that land use is restricted for farming purposes. The grants will help to protect 27 farms in 16 counties throughout New York.

"Agriculture is a very important part of New York's economy and food supply," Gov. Paterson said. "The Farmland Protection Program ensures that our local farmers receive the support they need as they work to keep their farmland productive. In preserving our open space, we also preserve our valuable farming resources, as well as our agricultural tradition."

New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said, "While its primary purpose is to protect productive farmland, the Farmland Protection Program also helps safeguard local food production, as well as provide a true economic stimulus to rural communities. By allowing farmers to utilize the equity in their land without selling their assets, the State is encouraging the preservation of not only farmland, but farmers. This is a tremendous program with ancillary benefits that reach every New Yorker and I thank Governor Paterson for his support."

The Farmland Protection Program provides financial assistance through the Environmental Protection Fund that help counties and towns to support local farmland preservation activities. In doing so, the program provides cost-share funds to municipalities, who in turn purchase the development rights on the farmland to permanently protect it from development and allow farm owners to utilize the equity on their land without selling it. The cost-share ratio is 75 percent state and 25 percent local.

The 2009 Farmland Protection Program will provide $1,703,820 to Suffolk County for the protection of DeLalio Sod Farms in both Dix Hills and Riverhead, a 58-acre property leased with 100 percent prime soils. The farm is part of a larger block of protected farms that collectively buffer a sole-source aquifer. The County will contribute $2,299,000 towards this project. In addition, $530,459 will be granted to the town of Southold for the protection of Maaratooka North Farm, an 18-acre greenhouse and nursery operation with 100 percent prime soils, which adjoins two other protected farms. The Town will contribute $875,000 towards this project.

The Farmland Protection Program is open to all counties that have approved agricultural and farmland protection plans, and to other municipalities that have a local farmland protection plan in place. Preferred projects are those that preserve viable agricultural land, are located in areas facing significant development pressure and serve as a buffer to a significant natural public resource containing an important ecosystem or habitat. The program also considers a farm's long-term potential to remain in viable agricultural production, the cost of the proposal in relation to the acreage to be protected, and the level of commitment to farmland protection that other local project partners demonstrate.

New York State has 7.6 million acres of farmland with 34,000 farms. Since 1996, New York has awarded more than $173.3 million for farmland protection projects, assisting local governments and their project partners in 29 counties to help protect 72,668 acres on 303 farms. To date, 152 projects have closed, protecting in perpetuity, 29,180 acres of farmland.