Agricultural Preservation Program Clause Samples

Agricultural Preservation Program. The United States Department of Agriculture’s 2002 Census of Agriculture found that from 1950 to 2002, Ohio lost one-third of its total agricultural lands. The State of Ohio has a clearly delineated conservation policy to preserve and promote agriculture and agricultural land for a significant public benefit. The Ohio Department of Agriculture (“ODA”) is charged with the responsibility of protecting and promoting agriculture, including the preservation of Ohio’s farmland by accepting agricultural easements in accordance with R.C. 901.21(B). By granting and accepting an agricultural easement over the Protected Property, the Grantor is furthering the State of Ohio’s conservation policy to preserve and protect viable agricultural land. The Grantor intends that this Easement will confine the use of the Protected Property, in perpetuity, to activities that are consistent with the Purpose of this Easement. Ohio’s policy to preserve and promote agriculture and agricultural land is further reflected in the enactment of R.C. 901.21 and 901.22 which allow, inter alia, the Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture to acquire agricultural easements by gift, devise or bequest, and to establish a procedure for awarding matching grants for the purchase of agricultural easements. These sections also provide that the Director shall monitor Ohio’s agricultural easement program to evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency as a farmland preservation tool. Additionally, this policy is reflected in R.C. 901.54, which creates the Office of Farmland Preservation within the ODA to actively preserve farmland and encourage and assist others in doing so. The grant of this agricultural easement is exclusively for the “conservation purpose” as that term is described in Section 170(h)(4)(A)(iii) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, which encourages the preservation of open space, including farmland and forest land.