The Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase program enables state, county and local governments to buy conservation easements, sometimes called development rights, from owners of farmland that meets certain criteria. Among the qualifying stipulations is a 50-acre minimum, an assessment of the extent and type of non-agricultural uses nearby, and the existing control of erosion and sedimentation on the land.

The objective is to slow the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses, including commercial real estate development. Farmers can receive proceeds from the sales in a lump sum, in five-year installments, or on a long-term installment basis in order to pay down debt, expand farming operations and/or pass farms onto the next generation.

This is the second year of grants from the $625-million fund, which was established and approved by voters in 2005. It will be distributed within six years of the legislation. In the first year of awards, $39.4 million was spent to preserve more than 14,800 acres on 142 farms statewide.