Final report for ENC21-201
Project Information
The Kansas Rural Center (KRC) was a major participant with Indiana University in 2016 in a SARE project “Transitioning farm and ranch land from one family to another: Evaluating new strategies for profitable transfers and sustainable agriculture partnerships.” This project responds to needs uncovered then.
More than 40% of American farmland and ranchland will change hands over the next 15 years (American Farmland Trust, 2018). This massive transfer of farm real estate offers one of the greatest threats to farmland—or one of the best opportunities for new farmers looking for land. Thus the Kansas Rural Center, in partnership with JCCC Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, Stu Shafer, proposes expanding a curriculum of land transfer and tenure practices developed by American Farmland Trust, “Farmland for the Next Generation,” a comprehensive 8-part land access trainer curriculum. The AFT skills-based approach addresses three paths to land access: leasing, purchasing, and receiving land through inheritance or gift. KRC will build upon this to develop an “alternative” land transfer/ownership/tenure curriculum that will include cooperatives, land trusts, farm commons, conservation easements, production cooperatives, as well as other land-use models for sustainable farm systems.
To Address this need Kansas Rural Center worked to develop a curriculum based upon alternative land tenure options, and shared this curriculum with agricultural service providers and farmers across the state of Kansas.
This project has varied targeted audiences who will receive professional development curriculum and instruction, and educational materials on alternative land transfer/land tenure or ownership. Professional development audiences will include:
- Top-priority farmer/rancher advisors/trainers— Extension leaders/educators, organizational leaders providing farm services, especially those supporting sustainable farming/ranching (examples of interested organizations are listed in Year I activities number 5 above), farm lenders, accountants, financial advisors, attorneys, appraisers, etc.
The products of professional development activities will be best practices materials for alternative land transfer and tenure/ownership to be developed by the curriculum team and presented online and via in-person events; delivered through KRC conference presentations and, recorded sessions archived and accessible on the KRC website and YouTube; as wells broadcast stories of successful transitions/tenure and new owners via social media.
Product Outputs will include:
- Best practice instructional methods & curriculum for alternative land transfer/land ownership/tenure with sustainable farming examples will be created by educational advisory team;
- Professional development sessions taught by members of the educational advisory team and spread regionally throughout Kansas to agricultural professionals serving students, other ag professionals, and farmer/ranchers;
- Practical knowledge for policy and decision-makers will be created and included in professional development materials, emphasizing sustainable farm successes with alternative land access;
- Multiple presentations by the educational advisory team will be offered on land transfer at the KRC Annual Conference during topical breakout sessions, as well as a keynote overview of land transfer options;
- All professional development will be recorded and uploaded to the KRC website & YouTube providing ongoing access to landowner/transfer information, and skills for programs.
- All alternative farm transfer and alternative land tenure curriculum is encouraged to be immediately applied in agricultural business and agricultural education and will be tracked by KRC long-term for at least three years;
- More sustainable agricultural operations continue, or begin, on farms transitioned between unrelated parties, also tracked by KRC long-term
The original project objectives were modified as the initial project team turned over and new staff at the Kansas Rural Center worked to develop effective engagement and outreach with new materials.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Develop farm transition curricula for alternative land access methods.
This initiative will develop and share curricula that explores alternative models of land access to empower those who find land unavailable through more traditional land access avenues.
This project developed a curriculum and set of presentations to share concepts of alternative land tenure and transfer mechanisms to participants. This set of materials received positive feedback from both farm service providers and farmers. Of participants who completed follow-up surveys, over 90% reported an increase in knowledge of at least one of the key areas of the project- cooperative land ownership, incubator farms, conservation easements and land trusts and common farmland ownership. This project was able to reach over 100 individuals and create print and video documents that will continue to provide additional education over the coming years.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
This project focused primarily on the development of a curriculum featuring alternative land transfer methods and has provided some introductory workshops on that curriculum to a variety of audiences through online and in person workshops. This beginning phase has consisted of research and additional education on topics that provide a foundation for the curriculum in areas of land tenure, farmer to farmer relationships and business structures. Discerning the key aspects of alternative models has also been complicated, as many of the successes and failures that have been explored have seemed to depend on idiosyncratic circumstances and relationships. We developed a useful framework to place alongside the examples of alternative options to help participants understand the key points of various options and what pieces are critical for success in different models. This material was shared with a diverse range of program participants, from interested citizens, to farmers and ranchers to farm service providers and Extension educators.
This project waschallenging because of the unconventional nature of the land access options it explores. It has demanded the development of additional areas of expertise and knowledge for the principle investigator that have been somewhat difficult to uncover and have delayed the public sharing of the curriculum. This additional skill development around issues of farm law topics and communications has been useful in helping to work with farmers in other contexts and on other challenges beyond land access, so that has been a nice bonus to the development of the curriculum. The original target goals for outreach numbers appear to have been vastly too optimistic, as it would have entailed the engagement of more than all the Extension professionals in the state, and we did not have a way to successfully engage that broad of an audience. We did succeed in creating engagement and getting feedback from a diverse audience which has helped strengthen our materials to address a variety of interests, questions and concerns.