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Great Lakes Farm Incubator leader says land access programs are key to farmland preservation
A farm business advisor says land matching programs are playing a growing role in keeping farmland in production.
Koffi Kapchavi is the northwest regional advisor for the MIFarmLink Program.
“I think the relationship between the farmland seeker and the farmland owner is a very important one,” he says.
He says those connections can build generational commitments to steward the land.
“Once you take farmland and you pour concrete on it to build a structure, it will never go back to farmland,” he says. “There should be a sense of urgency because once the farmland has been turned into housing development, for example, we’ve lost it forever.”
Kapchavi, who also leads the Great Lakes Farm Incubator Program, says new farmers are seeking smaller acreages.
“A lot of the beginning farmers want to do things like vegetable farming, things that they can take to the farmers market, things that are easy to turn over,” he explains. “They don’t want to plant an orchard and wait for five years, or they can get a return on it.”
He says land linking programs can create more flexible and affordable ways to access farmland.
“You still need somebody to help you finalize the sale, if it is a sale, or a lease, but you would not have to incur the listing cost or the cost you normally would with a normal property sale,” he shares.
In some cases, Kapchavi says beginning farmers have been able to defer land costs until their operations are more established, depending on the landholder’s interests.
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