CFFPI - Farmland Protection Partnership Program

Press Release: Ohio State Center Announces Farmland Protection Grants

2009 FPPP awardees:

Senior Nutrition Local Fruit and Vegetable Purchasing Program
Applicant:  Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio, Inc.
Project Location:  Lucas County

Food Policy Council:  Examining Opportunities for Increasing Agricultural Economic Development, Food Security, and Farmland Protection through the use of County-, Municipal-, and Rural Water District-Managed Acreage to Grow Staple Food Crops
A
pplicant:  Rural Action
Project Location:  Athens County

Manure Agreements, Nutrient Utilization, and the Rural Economy (M.A.N.U.R.E.)
Applicant:  Countryside Conservancy
Location:  Baughman Township, Wayne County

Hispanic Grower/Farmers' Market Project
Applicant:  Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District
Location:  Lake County

Please follow the above links to learn more about currently funded projects.

The Ohio State University Center for Farmland Policy Innovation is thrilled to partner with the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Rural Rehabilitation Grant Program to provide our four grant recipients and all of their partners on such innovative projects.  These projects cover everything from setting up markets for manure management, creating opportunities for Hispanic growers, identifying strategies for staple food production on public lands, and establishing processes for bringing fresh fruit and vegetables into senior meal programming.

  • The RFP for this round can be found on this page.

  • Projects from the 2006 FPPP are described on this page

About the Farmland Protection Partnership Program

Ohio communities that want to try innovative ways to protect farmland could apply for funding from the Center for Farmland Policy Innovation at Ohio State University (press release, above). The Center's Farmland Protection Partnership Program (FPPP) is designed to match Center resources with local farmland protection priorities. The Center’s resources include funds available for awards to applicants (approximately $180,000 this round), and Center staff’s expertise, which includes personal knowledge base, university researchers working in this arena, and existing national networks of farmland protection experts (both in and out of the university systems).

The policy experiments and demonstration projects that result from Center collaboration with local applicants will be conducted in the field to see what can actually work – in some respects, developing a land policy laboratory for Ohioans. The laboratory will aid all Ohio local policymakers by providing on-the-ground demonstrations of completed experiments.

Potential projects could include, but are certainly not limited to, examining the feasibility and creating the policy for a new farmland protection program (such as a transfer of development rights program); developing agricultural supportive zoning; establishing an innovative agri-tourism policy/program; developing a pioneering agricultural economic development initiative; and establishing formal relationships between local governments and non-profit land trusts in regards to land protection.

This is truly a partnership program. The Center will directly assist successful applicants in developing the work plan that will guide the project. The Center will also play an active role assisting the applicant to execute successful projects, utilizing in-house expertise and Center networks.

The criteria for potential projects include:

  • The goal is to protect farmland.

  • The applicant is governing body of an Ohio county, township or municipality. Other project collaborators may include non-profit organizations and other governmental agencies.

  • The project includes a local match, direct or in-kind, comprising at least 25% of the project budget.

  • The project is innovative and new to Ohio. This may mean incorporating policies new to the state of Ohio or combining existing policies or programs in new and innovative ways.

  • The project can be implemented within a reasonable amount of time, typically one to two years.

  • The project can translate into a model (be replicable) for other Ohio communities and the local partner is willing to participate in ongoing education for other Ohio communities.

  • The end result of the project is an innovative farmland policy.

Additional elements that make a stronger application include the following. The proposed project: brings together farmland protection stakeholders in a new collaboration; results in multi-jurisdictional partnerships; capitalizes on existing resources; includes a greater than 25% local direct or in-kind match; builds upon existing farmland protection efforts; and/or promotes best management practices. To enable Ohio local governments to achieve farmland policy priorities
by partnering on innovative projects and providing needed programming.

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e: cffpi@osu.edu; p: 614.247.6479; f: 614.292.0078
m: Center for Farmland Policy Innovation, Dept. of Agricultural, Environmental, & Development Econ.
103 Agricultural Administration Bldg., 2120 Fyffe Rd., Columbus, Ohio  43210  USA