Richmond County’s annual Farm City Week celebration has the tagline this year: “Agriculture, it’s in our roots”.

The annual Ellerbe Farmers’ Day Parade (the Saturday before Thanksgiving) and Farmers’ Appreciation Luncheon (the Monday before Thanksgiving) are ways Richmond Countians “give thanks” to our farmers and celebrate our agriculture heritage. Richmond County has a rich history of farming which continues today, though the industry looks different now from 50 years ago, when about 150 farmers in the county were raising tobacco.

The NC Chamber reports that Agriculture and Agribusiness in North Carolina together are the primary economic drivers in the state, contributing $103 billion (that’s with a “B”) dollars to the state’s economy, or one-sixth of the state’s overall income. Additionally, one in six jobs in NC is connected to agriculture or agribusiness.

However, all is not rosy for the industry. In addition to challenges that have always existed, such as trade issues and market fluctuations, increasingly now there are devasting weather events (such as hurricanes and droughts), the increasing average age of farmers (currently around 59), and the fact that the number of young people in the industry is not keeping pace with those retiring.

The USDA reported (from the 2017 Ag Census) that the number of farmers over the age of 65 outnumbered those under 35 by more than six to one (the latest data from the 2022 Ag Census should be out in February of 2024). One of the biggest challenges for North Carolina farmers is the availability of farmland, especially for young people who may be trying to get into agriculture.

American Farmland Trust (AFT) is a nonprofit with the mission to “save America’s farms and ranches” and is in the forefront of the national conservation agriculture movement since its founding in 1980.

Over the years of tracking farmland loss across the country, North Carolina has consistently ranked as one of the highest, and is currently ranked second for farmland loss, behind Texas, according to AFT data. Their most recent project is the report “Farms Under Threat 2040” which identifies the potential for farmland conversion to other developed uses in three different scenarios: “Business as usual” (existing policies that may in some ways support farmland preservation), “Runaway sprawl” (an extreme scenario with no constraints to development) and “Better Built Cities” (a scenario where policies help protect existing farmland from development). Fortunately for Richmond County (from some perspectives, anyway), predictions of farmland conversion (loss) due to sprawl is fairly low, at 12%, less than for some of our neighboring counties: Union: 65%; Anson, 44%; Montgomery, 31%; and Scotland, 57%.

However, the prediction for Richmond is still for a loss of almost 5,000 acres of farmland to low density residential without the creation of increased support to maintain farm use. Farmland loss to residential development is creating an additional challenge for young people trying to get into farming: competition for land is driving up the cost. The USDA Land Values 2022 Summary report shows an overall 8.4% increase in NC farmland, to an average value of $5,150 per acre (this data is pre-2022; the numbers are only increasing).

NC State Extension has programs to help young people find land to farm, to help existing farmers who would like to keep their land in farming find potential ag buyers, and to assist families in farm transition and legacy planning. The NC FarmLink program includes a land identification tool, where people looking for land can search a specific county for available farmland; a farmer can list their own farm for lease or to sell; a list of resources and tools for connecting with ag resources throughout the state and information about protecting farmland with conservation easements.

A conservation easement is a way to permanently protect farmland from development. Richmond County, along with most other counties in the state, also has a Voluntary Agricultural District (VAD) program. This program allows landowners to put their land in a temporary “agreement” (rather than a formal, permanent, easement) that the land will only be used for agricultural purposes, including forestry.

The VAD agreement provides something of a “speedbump”, slowing down potential actions such as public use condemnations (for highway development, for example), nuisance suits, or other challenges to agricultural use. The cost to participate in the program is a $50 application fee, covering the cost of filing the application with the Register of Deeds, and a large, NCDOT compliant reflective VAD sign which is a notification that the land is in agricultural use. Information and applications to Richmond County’s VAD program is provided by the NC Cooperative Extension, Richmond County Center office.

For more information about the VAD program or other resources related to farm preservation and planning, please call NC Cooperative Extension, Richmond County Center, at 910-997-8255. Visit our website or follow us on Facebook.