Land Transfer Navigators Program to Help as Farmland Changes Hands

American Farmland Trust (AFT) announced a new “Land Transfer Navigators” program in partnership with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services (USDA NRCS) that will help exiting farmers and landowners retire with confidence and help new, beginning, and underserved farmers gain secure, equitable land access. Over the next four years, AFT will train three dozen land protection organizations and their staff to serve as “Navigators” in communities across the country to aid exiting and entering farmers in the land transfer process, leveraging land protection as a strategy to facilitate successful, affordable land transfer. “With millions of acres of farmland likely to transition over the next decade, NRCS sees a pivotal opportunity to help landowners identify transfer strategies that keep land in active agriculture,” says Carrie Lindig, Director of Easement Programs at NRCS.