Securing Land Tenure Rights for Heirs Property Owners

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Farm Business Management: farm succession
• Sustainable Communities: public policy, Heirs property

The principal investigator partners, North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers Land Loss Prevention Project (LLPP) and Rural Coalition (RC) coordinated the overall research and education planning, and administration of this SSARE project across the LLPP collaboration base and the RC’s membership, including cooperator groups (Operation Spring Plant, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, and Texas Coalition of Rural Landowners). During FY2021-2023, this entailed meeting with cooperators to pivot research and implementation approaches during the Pandemic and to consider emerging environmental, disaster, and federal program-related needs and opportunities (i.e., White House, Congressional and USDA programs ranging across HRSA, ARPA, IRA, DFAP, ERP and others).

Our findings related to heirs property, land acquisition, land loss, new/beginning (and transitioning) farmers, ranchers and forest landowners and sustainable agriculture were also timely as they informed policy recommendations such as federal comments, meetings with mayors across the Southern region, and our input to the USDA Equity Commission at a critical time. LLPP’s Executive Director contributed directly to that Commission’s recent final report as a member of the Agriculture Sub-Committee with critical contributions on: 1) providing non-loan options to prevent recurring heirs property dynamics in families; 2) increasing land access through funding of community-led land access and transition projects; 3) increasing funding for the Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL); and 4) providing funding for cooperative agreements with community-based organizations and ensuring that heirship studies are inclusive with the fractionation issues of Tribal communities. The Rural Coalition submitted vital comments on these topics as well.

The project, “Securing Land Tenure Rights for Heirs Property Owners,” was designed to increase farmers’, ranchers’ and communities’ awareness of the barriers presented by heirs property and to provide access to trusted community resources through adoption of innovations by peer farmers, cooperatives, landowner associations, and project partners on using these new tools to address these barriers. The goals, objectives, and approaches were rooted in the Diffusion of Innovations theories popularized by Everett Rogers, which highlight the importance of finding early adopters to demonstrate and model new practices, and of utilizing peer networks to disseminate new ideas more broadly and accelerate adoption.

Two key long-term change strategies observed by Rogers include: 1) a highly respected individual within a social network adopting an innovation and creating a broader desire for that innovation within the network; and 2) introducing an innovation into a group of individuals, such as a farmer cooperative or a network of service providers, to support adoption of the innovation. In cooperator meetings, interviews, focus groups, and farmer/ landowner meetings, we heard clearly that clearing heirs property status is key to planning and implementing sustainable agriculture practices, because land ownership must first be sustainable. As a result, the project activities built on farmer/ landowner input in the Discover Phase and utilized these two strategies in the Build and Educate Phases to spread knowledge and practices; and then supported a broader change network through the Evaluation and Dissemination Phases, as described below.

Discover: The team built on focus groups and leveraged project activities for ongoing input to support farmers/ landowners in securing land tenure, ensuring economic wellbeing, and improving the environmental quality of their operations and social benefits to the communities.

The full project team, with leadership from the farm team formed of the cooperating farmers, provided workshops in each area using LLPP’s “10 Ways to Save Your Land.” Participants across these communities were then invited to participate in confidential focus groups followed by a survey. Focus groups utilized various techniques including dot allocation to identify key factors and prioritize influential concepts on the impact of these issues for families in the community to inform the survey. The surveys, which protect the identity of the participants, focused on the experience of the farm families and gathered key demographic data and farm enterprise data. Taken together these informed surveys centered around land tenure and farming practices helped unveil how land tenure arrangements and new tools are influencing farming operation choices, sustainability, and succession.

All our partners leveraged decades of experience and made extensive use of participatory research and popular education methodologies in the project. We aligned our research, data collection, reporting, and dissemination strategies, looked back on what we have achieved in the past, and leveraged the research, the input from interviews and focus groups, and the information gathered during workshops, technical assistance sessions and other connections with farmers and landowners to keep improving the work as well as the tools for information sharing about successes and solutions.

We employed and assessed the following methods in our work:

• Baseline Surveying and Assessment
• Group-Based Training and Information Sharing
• Individualized Technical Assistance
• Leadership Development and Increased Capacity of our Farmer Mentoring Network
• Project Team Field Visits/Conferences
• Outreach and Communications
• Data Collection, Results/Outcomes-Based Reporting and Participatory

Evaluation

• Resource Sharing and Information Dissemination

Land Tenure is Key to Agricultural Sustainability

An early pivot in the project structure came about as a result of input gleaned during the Discover phase. Having heard clearly during the Discover phase that heirs property status is only one of multiple, intersecting and interconnected issues typically faced by historically underserved producers and landowners, the Land Tenure Specialist team activities were redesigned to round out the range of support needed to understand, stabilize and advance land tenure.

The Land Tenure Specialist’s proposed scope of work included preparation of training modules and delivery of workshops on land ownership records, title searches, deeds, court records, and how to preserve documents. In reaching out to potential project partners, the SARE project team learned that The Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program had secured USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service funding to develop and deliver the same workshops. Since the Resourceful Communities workshop leads, Peg Kohring Cichon and McIntosh Sustainable Environment and Economic Development (McSEED), were able to reach the same target populations, the Land Tenure Specialist position was reconfigured to a team including Peg, McSEED, Mikki Sager (the original team member), Livia Marques and Savi Horne, all with extensive experience in working with farmers, landowners and communities. The scope of activities was broadened and deepened, to build on landowner input and lessons learned through the workshops, and to focus on the following impact areas, primarily in the Build and Educate categories:

• Technical Assistance: We provided technical assistance to producers, landowners, tribes and communities, including sharing information, providing one-on-one technical assistance to increase access to public dollars and providing direct connections to agencies, funding and other resources that have previously been functionally inaccessible.
• Policy: Farmer and landowner input helped to inform public policy suggestions and recommendations through participation in conferences, workshops, focus groups and individual interviews that enabled sharing of information gleaned through Discover phase, and learned from producers’ and partners’ lived and work experiences.
• Leveraging Resources: The public dollars available during the pandemic created opportunities for increasing access to funding, markets and other resources while also building skills and capacity for the long term, especially through network connections and new partnerships.
• Models: The resources available helped farmers and ranchers in developing models that are rooted in producers’ and landowners’ realities, are culturally informed and can influence future programming, policy development, and community and producer/ landowner efforts.
• Workshops: Hosting virtual and in-person workshops enabled producers and landowners to build skills; transfer knowledge about heirs property, estate planning, wills, trusts and LLCs; and build a base of trust for additional follow-up support to individuals and families.

Build: We built educational and policy materials and provided legal and technical assistance based on the recommendations and best practices to move producers to secured land tenure.

Based on input and insights gleaned during the Discover phase, the team developed additional questions and performed additional analysis using county level data from the Census of Agriculture, and on key concepts drawn from the broader literature. We employed this data to help each community develop insights on how to better structure outreach and technical assistance, and over time, to track results, by race, gender and ethnicity.

Workshops engaged farmers, ranchers, and landowners in target communities to develop specific recommendations on how heirs property related policy tools and educational materials are now working and how these can be improved to better meet the needs of farmers and communities. The focus was on how new farm bill policies related to heirs property, coupled with the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA) being adopted at the state level, can work to remove barriers to USDA program access, and help families address the difficult issues of family succession and benefit the community. The project activities were carried out with iterative and formative inputs informing adjustments to materials, updated alongside emerging business and ownership conditions and structures. Broadly, the project team carried out the following project activities, including:

• Outreach and Education: LLPP, RC, cooperator groups and Land Tenure Specialists hosted virtual and in-person workshops, shared materials developed in response to farmer/ landowner input, and made presentations at other entities’ gatherings, to build skills and transfer knowledge about sustainable agriculture, government programs, land tenure issues, heirs property, land acquisition/ rematriation, farm business opportunities and structures, legal structures, accessing public funding and more. We also developed professional development classes/ sessions to broaden the support and assistance network available to help historically underserved producers and landowners address sustainable agriculture production, conservation practices, heirs property and related land tenure and economic challenges; and build a trusted community of practice with skills and capacity to provide additional follow-up support to individuals and families.
• Legal Assistance: We heard, during the Discover phase, that farmers and landowners seldom have access to legal assistance they can trust, Project team partners provided access to, or direct legal and technical assistance to farmers, landowners, families, cooperatives, community-based organizations, and agriculturally-focused nonprofits, including sharing information; providing one-on-one legal assistance or technical support to address heirs property, foreclosure prevention, estate planning or other land tenure issues; helping families and groups of farmers/ landowners structure limited liability companies, agricultural and value-added food businesses, community farms and cooperatives/ collectives; and increasing access to public dollars and providing direct connections to agencies, funding and other resources that have previously been functionally inaccessible.
• Technical Assistance: Project team members provided a broad range of technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, landowners, tribal Nations, faith groups and community groups on sustainable agriculture, land tenure, land acquisition, government programs, and more. Topics and skills included but were not limited to: heirs property, risk management, climate smart agriculture, cover crops, wills, taxes, probates, partition sales, climate resiliency, debt relief, agricultural business plans, forming and operating cooperatives, USDA programs (DFAP, NAP, EQIP, Rural Development, etc.), the Farm Bill, and COVID-era funding opportunities.
• Leveraging Resources: We worked to help farmers, landowners, communities, tribes and other participants increase access to funding, markets and other resources as a means of building skills and capacity for the long term, especially through network and peer connections, new partnerships, and direct connections to agency professionals and public/ private funding sources.
• Supporting Models: We assisted farmers and landowners to develop operating models and legal/ business structures that are rooted in producers’ and landowners’ realities, are culturally informed and can influence farm operations, future programming, policy development, and community and producer/ landowner efforts.

Educate: We shared materials/ practices with farmers, extension agents, and communities, and grew the support network needed to adopt more ecologically and sustainable practices.

The educational materials and policy recommendations were shared with participating farmers, area extension agents, and policy makers for revisions and action. The partners tested materials during follow-up workshops, meetings and trainings using modules that were tested and evaluated by the Farm Team and during the trainings, and were revised, updated and shared with others for final review, including at the annual Winter Forum of the Rural Coalition, and at the trainings held annually by Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project and Operation Spring Plant.

• Workshops: We hosted virtual and in-person workshops to build skills, transfer knowledge, and build a base of trust for additional follow-up support to individuals, families, communities, faith groups, tribal governments and Native entities.

SUMMARY TALLY OF CRITICAL PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS

Over the course of the extended three-year project period, the project team engaged in the following activities and produced the results tallied below:

Outreach and Education: 8,924 individuals participated in 184 virtual and in-person workshops, including historically underserved, socially disadvantaged farmers/ ranchers/ homeowner farmers/ small-acreage farmers/ landowners/ women and veteran producers, as well as community leaders and members; land, racial justice and elder abuse prevention advocates; senior and disabled homeowners, caregivers and service providers; homeowners with forestland; FSA and agricultural and rural leaders; legal practitioners and advocates for farmers and homeowners; local and statewide service providers in healthcare, emergency services, home restoration, agricultural services, education, law; conservation finance, agency and philanthropic leaders; students and academics in agriculture, law and conservation; small business owners; local and regional government leaders.

Over 12,000 packets of educational materials were distributed, with thousands more individual educational documents being distributed during the three-year project period. In addition to updating “Ten Ways to Save Your Land,” the LLPP team created and distributed 105 copies of a special activity book on estate planning for children, in response to input about the need to educate and meaningfully engage future generations around land tenure. Topics addressed included: heirs property, estate planning, wills preparation, foreclosure prevention, disaster preparedness/ relief/ recovery, farm business entity formation, cooperatives, and more. Virtual and in-person workshop participants included 34 producers, 452 individual landowners, and over 150 community leaders from throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. An additional 6 historically underserved community groups developed plans and accessed funding through support in developing community-led food system models.

Legal Assistance: A broad range of legal and technical assistance was provided, with 1,246 legal matters addressed in 77 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, including the most socially and economically distressed counties. These included: 210 lending and finance-related matters, including debt restructuring, consumer issues, and foreclosure defense, including bankruptcy; 367 real property matters such as adverse possession, boundary disputes and heirs property; 77 agricultural business issues including rural economic development, incorporation, tax-exempt status support, land use, environmental issues and miscellaneous matters such as tenancy; 71 civil and individual rights matters, including issues involving the USDA; and support to 521 individuals/families on preparing wills and estate planning. The legal and technical assistance in North Carolina preserved land, homes and farms with a tax value of $6,629,430, retaining generational wealth and critical assets for families in need and protecting farms and agricultural businesses.

Technical Assistance: A broad range of technical assistance was provided to over 630 farmers and ranchers who all qualify as socially disadvantaged, beginning/ young, historically underserved, women, and/ or veteran. Skills built and topics covered included, but were now limited to: securing farm numbers,  financial recordkeeping, applying for reduced taxation programs, coaching and assistance in preparing EQIP applications, beekeeping and pollinator pathways, climate smart agriculture, cover crops, registering to supply vegetables under the USDA Local Food for School Cooperative Agreement Program, learning about preferences that veterans are eligible for, accessing new markets such as selling cotton to Cargill via the Black Equity Program, securing high tunnels and rainwater harvesting equipment funding, protecting inherited land via a land trust, and more. Additional assistance was provided to 96 individual landowners and 8 landowner families comprising more than 85 individuals; one federally recognized tribal nation; and at least four excluded communities/ historically underserved community- based organizations (CBOs).

Leveraging Resources: In addition to the project lead organizations raising $10 million in federal funding for outreach services, and sustainable agriculture business support, we also helped partner farmers and communities raise over $4.7 million to advance sustainable agriculture, strengthen farm and cooperative operations, access new markets, secure farm equipment and more. This included supporting the efforts of 6 tribes, 8 rural food hubs and three community-based organizations secure over $3.75 million in funding to support general operations, land acquisition, food businesses, local food systems and more; plus assisting 4 Texas landowners in obtaining $224,000 in grants to purchase new farming equipment via the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality; and we supported 3 farmers and one market cooperative in securing over $700,000 to strengthen operations and increase access to new markets.

Supporting Models: Project team members provided support to cooperatives and collectives supporting more than 260 historically underserved and socially disadvantaged farmers/ landowners/ value-added food processors in strengthening their operations, increasing revenues, increasing access to public and private funding, increasing access to public conservation programs and implementing sustainable agriculture practices. We were instrumental in assisting BIPOC collaboratives and networks in securing over $700,000 that was distributed to historically underserved, socially disadvantaged, young, beginning, women and veteran farmers and landowners to strengthen agriculturally-based businesses, and to establish an East Coast agroecology center serving the Southern Black Belt. Likewise, our collaborative advocacy framework resulted in the NC Department of Agriculture securing millions of federal dollars to increase food access in communities and schools throughout the state, while working with underserved farmers to help them access produce markets locally and across the state. An additional 94 individual producers strengthened their operations through increased access to markets, support to producer cooperatives, and access to shared equipment.

Informing Policy: The project team members shared information gleaned from the Discover Phase and throughout the project period to both inform and support public policy regarding land tenure, agricultural production, access to capital and markets, and more. In several cases, LLPP provided direct support to heirs property owners who were being denied COVID relief housing assistance funds because individual names were not on the real property deeds. LLPP documented the legal basis for the funding to be awarded. At the same time, LLPP engaged in shaping with policy collaborators the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) and bringing to fruition the land access program which provided transformational capital to three community-based nonprofits to assist BIPOC farmers; served on the Agriculture Committee of the USDA Equity Commission; and, in the 2023-23 grant period, contributed to the interim report that recommended enhanced diversity across USDA, furthered opportunities for people of color, and addressing of discrimination. Project team members also provided thought partnership, input and policy recommendations to Federal Reserve Board, USDA-Forest Service, Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, and national intermediaries (The Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense Fund, Aspen Institute), regarding land/ food/ economic/ environmental/ climate challenges. Additional policy recommendations provided by RC are noted below:

• (2022 - Letter to Chairman Bishop and Ranking Member Fortenberry:)
• (i)           Relending Program To Resolve Ownership And Succession On Farmland.  Under Section 5104 of the 2018 Farm Bill, the Congress authorized a new USDA Farm Service Agency intermediary relending pilot program to resolve heirs’ property issues that cloud title to agricultural lands and prevent participation in critical USDA programs. The Revolving Loan pilot authorized under Section 5104 permits USDA loans to heirs property interest holders for the purpose of purchasing the interests of non-farming heirs who desire to sell their interest to family members intending to actively farm the land. 
  •  
• Section 5104 authorizes an appropriation up to $10 million annually.  We request the committee provide the full $10 million for FY 2020 in order to allow the Secretary to initiate and establish 3(three) or more pilot relending programs to best assess different methods and models for relending, and best inform a report with recommendations for improvement and continuation. 
  •  
• (ii)         Farmland Ownership Data Collection.  Section 12607 of the 2018 Farm Bill created the Farmland Ownership Data Collection initiative with the specific charge of capturing data trends in farmland (a) ownership, (b) tenure, (c) generational transitions, (d) and barriers to entry for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.  The data and studies compiled under Section 12607 can be used to inform and guide all levels of agricultural policymaking that concern the critical dynamics of heirs’ property and absentee land ownership in farming communities.  Further, we recommend an appropriation of $3 million in FY 2020 in order to implement the collection of data that supports the need for a robust and viable plan for the efficient transition of farmland to the next generation of farmers and ranchers. 

Evaluate: Research findings and metrics were documented and informed development of new materials, business models and operating structures to strengthen production and land tenure.

Research findings and metrics are reported above and below, including numbers of farmers and communities reached, number of wills completed, and the outcomes of heirs property representation provided, including use of the UPHPA.

The team also shared for review with extension personnel and policy makers a report analyzing the view of farmers and communities of the efficacy of new policy tools coupled with training modules to return dormant land to farming and pass it on to new generations, and otherwise affect the ecological status, economic well-being and quality of life of the farmer, her/his family, and the community. The efficacy of the materials produced will be evaluated using a pretest/post-test design and amended for final dissemination.

The team will further assess the extent to which new farm bill policies related to heirs property, coupled with the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act being adopted at the state level, are functioning to remove barriers to USDA program access, and enabling families to address the complex issues of family succession in the farming vocation.

Disseminate: Educational materials and policy proposals were made available to producers, extension agents, advocates, support groups, key policy makers.

Educational material and policy proposals have been made available for producers, partner organizations and related CBO networks, and extension agents nationwide, on websites, in annual meetings held by each group and distributed to and discussed with key policy makers.

See Additional Attachments:

• Attachment 1 - 2021 - 2024 - SARE LS21-356 Final Report Tally
• Attachment 2 - Land Tenure Specialist Activities and Accomplishments 041124

Not applicable. Project Objectives remained as orginally proposed:

1. Discover: The team will develop an in-depth understanding of the experience of farming communities and families in addressing farm succession issues, and how new farm bill policies related to heirs property and related state laws, are working to remove barriers to USDA program access and return dormant land to production.
2. Build: Using findings, the team will engage communities to develop recommendations on improving heirs property policies and educational materials to better meet the needs of farmers and communities
3. Educate: Materials and Recommendations will be refined with participating farmers and area extension agents.
4. Evaluate: Materials refined are evaluated for final dissemination.
5. Disseminate: Educational material and policy proposals will be made available to producers and extension agents nationwide and key policy makers.