Land Access
As the average age of a farmer in New Hampshire rises, so does the increased insecurity of the food system. Without proper plans for farm transitions, farm land hangs in the balance. At the same time, young and beginning farmers are struggling with land access. Finding and affording land come with many challenges, especially with rising land prices and limited capital; many farmers are unable to get off the ground.
Now is the time to protect farmland for future generations. For retiring farmers, this page has resources for succession planning for your land, so you can make sure your land is stewarded and protected into the next generation. For new farmers and land seekers, this page offers resources to help guide you in finding and securing land. By bringing land seekers and sellers together, we ensure farmland continues to feed our community into futurity.
Land Access Resources
-
Land For Good’s mission is to expand secure farmland access, tenure, and transfer. They connect, assist, and engage farmers, landowners, service providers, communities, and policymakers to grow equitable farming opportunity and sustainably keep land in agriculture. They work across scales, from individual support to federal policy, to improve how farmers get onto, hold, and transfer farms.
-
American Farmland Trust has been on the ground in New England since 1985 – working to expand support for farms and farmland from Maine to Rhode Island.
-
Land access and farm transfer are two of the most important issues farmers face. The goal of the Farmland Access Legal Toolkit is to provide a helpful resource for farmers who need land in order to farm, and for farmers who want to transition their land to another farmer, as part of their estate planning or for other reasons.
This resource is designed so that farmers can be better prepared to talk to an attorney about their individual situation. An improved understanding of the legal options described in this toolkit can help farmers create realistic farm transfer or acquisition goals before consulting with an attorney. This makes time with an attorney more efficient, less expensive (because lawyers often charge by the hour), and more likely to lead to a positive outcome for farmers.
In the end, there is no substitute for personalized legal help from an attorney who understands your farm, your family, and your goals.
-
New England Farmland Finder (NEFF) is the region's largest farm link website. This farmland property posting site was created with the intention of helping farm seekers and farm property holders connect.
It is a free service for farming or non-farming landowners, transitioning or retiring farmers, and beginning and established farmers of all types - as well as and their representatives, including real estate agents, land trusts, conservation groups, religious or educational institutions, corporations, public land managers, municipalities, or state agencies. Conventional real estate listings don’t specialize in agricultural properties and typically lack the agricultural production focus useful for farmers and landowners. Learn more here
Land Access Opportunities
Land Succession
Resources
-
You are in the right place to move down the path of transitioning your farm to the next generation. Fulfilling a land legacy is rewarding. There is a sense of peace knowing the land will continue to be cared for by a beginning farmer and that the land will provide a home and livelihood for the next generation. But there are a lot of questions to ask and there is a lot of planning that goes into the farm transition journey.
What is your vision for your farm? How does this fit into the context of the larger rural landscape? What is the land’s best use? Learn more here!
-
AFT’s national Farm Legacy initiative ensures that land remains in farming as it transitions to the next generation while improving access to land for new farmers—honoring the nation’s farming and ranching legacy and securing its future. The comprehensive Farm Legacy initiative leverages AFT’s unique position as the only national organization focusing on farmland, ranchland, and the people who steward it. Learn more here!
-
A collection of farm transfer and succession materials. Learn more here!
Land Access Inquiries
Stay in Touch with NOFA-NH’s Farmer Newsletter
Sign up for the Farmer Newsletter to stay up to date with organic farming in New Hampshire. Receive monthly resources, farmer activities & opportunities, and have connection with the organic farming community!