Conservation efforts pay off for farmers

Jul 26, 2023

Farmers are learning that environmental stewardship can pay dividends.

During a recent field day, the Seine Rat River Watershed District highlighted two of the four projects in which farmers were able to take advantage of Alternative Land Use Services Canada (ALUS) funding to incentivize environmental upgrades to their land.

The district entered a partnership with ALUS in 2019, but the funding expanded to include the option of regular payments to farmers in some cases.

“Prior to 2021, we couldn’t give an annual payment as a supplement to a project,” says district manager Joey Pankiw. “We would just be paying for the establishment costs, and then the land would be taken out of production, and the farmer wouldn’t get any compensation.”

However, in 2021, the funding arrangement was amended so farmers could receive annual payments, which has helped encourage program uptake.

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Video: Cheapest States to Buy Farmland in America

The United States has more than 895 million acres of farmland, which includes all rural land tied to farming operations, from highly fertile Midwest cornfields to vast grazing ranges in the West, as well as the undeveloped rural land, which is often sold as ranches, homesteads, or uncultivated lots. Nowadays investing in rural land is very lucrative even billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett have bought up thousands of acres of farmland across America. In contrast to investors, agricultural companies, and business moguls, some buy farmland for their own requisites, like starting a small farmstead, creating a cottage, and becoming self-resilient. In this video we have ranked the top cheapest states to buy farmland according to the per-acre land value, which is accumulated from the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA’s per-acre land values come from an annual survey, which is cross-checked with actual sales data, appraisals, and market trends to ensure accuracy. So here are The top Cheapest States to Buy Farmland.