WEST ALEXANDRIA, Ohio —  The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) recently announced more than 2,000 acres have been added to the Farmland Preservation Program in the past 12 months. Twenty-two farmers and farm families joined the program over this period, bringing the 2024 total to 36.

In 2024, there were 323 acres of farmland preserved in Madison County, Ohio, alone. Other counties involved in this preservation process included Knox (104), Seneca (117), Preble (82), Muskingum (85), Ottawa (180), Fulton (77), Portage (116) and Wayne (79).

 An agricultural easement in Farmland Preservation is a voluntary agreement between the landowner and ODA, where the landowner agrees to perpetually maintain the land predominately in agricultural use. In exchange, the landowner is either compensated or may be entitled to a tax deduction.

 Since the Office of Farmland Preservation began in Ohio in 1998, 745 farms totaling 109,341 acres in 61 counties have entered into agreements. This enables Ohio to continually be a top producer, aiding not just Ohioans, but all Americans.

Between 1950 and 2000, Ohio lost more than 6.9 million acres of farmland, representing nearly one-third of Ohio’s agricultural land. The department works to provide tools to farmers who want to preserve their land for future generations.

While the purpose of most farmland preservation programs is to protect farmland from development, it doesn’t mean the farms must remain frozen in time. Preserving land with agricultural easements can help farmers move forward with agricultural developments that position their farms for success in the generations to come.

 For instance, Fred Voge, who farms near West Alexandria, has several farms protected with agricultural easements. Roughly 10 years ago he built a new beef cattle finishing barn, installed new fencing and upgraded some older barns. Voge says these improvements would likely outlast him, but they will help the farm remain a viable and sustainable enterprise for whoever follows him.

 “If you’re going to make that kind of investment in your farm, it makes sense to make sure it will remain a farm,” he said.

 Voge’s brother and father have preserved land with conservation easements as well. So have several of their neighbors. In all, more than 4,000 acres in 24 farms have been protected in Preble County through the state’s ag easement purchase program since it was initiated. The program is administered in the area by the Three Valley Conservation Trust, which serves as the local sponsor. Voge said that once a few landowners in the area preserve land, others become interested. As he put it, “it snowballed.”

 While the terms “farmland preservation” and “easement” are related, they are not the same. Farmland preservation is a broader concept encompassing various strategies to protect agriculture land, while an easement is a specific legal tool, often used as a component of farmland preservation that restricts future development on the land. And, they’re not to be confused with a conservation easement.

 “Ohio allows a landowner to grant a conservation easement, which is a promise to retain land predominantly to its natural, scenic, open or wooded condition and forfeit the right to develop the land for other purposes,” says Peggy Kirk-Hall, director of the Ohio State University Agricultural and Resource Law Program. Hall also sits on the Ohio Farmland Preservation Advisory Board.

 According to Hall, an agricultural easement does not restrict the right to sell or gift land, but it does carry over to the new landowner and that landowner must abide by the terms of the agricultural easement.