| Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program |
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Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program
American Farmland Trust; Northampton, MA: American Farmland Trust; FIC Fact Sheet and Technical Memo; page(s) 5; 2010; National; Fact Sheets and Technical Memos
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Abstract:
The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) is a voluntary federal conservation program that provides matching funds to eligible entities to buy permanent conservation easements on farm and ranch land. The program was originally enacted in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996. It was reauthorized and expanded in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill P.L.110-234) changed the purpose of the program from protecting topsoil to protecting “…the agricultural use and related conservation values of eligible land by limiting nonagricultural uses…” (16 U.S.C.§3838i). It also expanded the types of eligible entities and categories of eligible land. Most importantly, the 2008 Farm Bill changed the nature of the program from a federal real estate acquisition program to a federal financial assistance program that provides funds to entities for easement acquisitions. Funding for the FRPP comes from the Commodity Credit Corporation, the same federal entity that finances farm income support payments and conservation payments. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) manages the program.
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