Penn State Extension to offer new farming program

Penn State Extension plans to use a $50,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant to offer a program designed to bring together prospective and retiring farmers.

The goal of the Penn State Extension program, Setting the Stage for Succession: Tools for the Beginning Farmer, is to facilitate the transition of farmland and knowledge from one generation to the next.

An overnight retreat workshop is scheduled for early March in Lancaster County. Topics will include asset transfer channels, finding farmland, legal and tax structures of land purchase and ownership, and retirement planning considerations for new farmers.

In Pennsylvania, the agriculture industry provides employment as well as economic and environmental benefits to both rural and urban areas,

“However, between 2012 to 2017, the USDA agricultural census showed a 10 percent drop in the number of farms and a 6 percent decline in farmland acreage in the state,” Paula Ledney, project leader and Penn State Extension financial analyst and education program associate, said. “New and beginning farmers are finding it difficult to buy or lease farmland due to the decrease in available land and the higher prices that landowners are seeking for remaining farmland.”