Prime farmland is a designation assigned by

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

defining land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

, feed,

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used m ...

fiber Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...

, and

oilseed Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or f ...

crops and is also available for these

land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long h ...

Definition

Prime farmland "has the soil quality, growing season, and moisture supply needed to produce economically sustained high yields of crops when treated and managed according to acceptable farming methods, including water management.". In general, prime farmlands have an adequate and dependable water supply from

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

, a favorable temperature and

growing season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whil ...

, acceptable

acidity or alkalinity A pH indicator is a halochromic chemical compound added in small amounts to a solution so the pH ( acidity or basicity) of the solution can be determined visually or spectroscopically by changes in absorption and/or emission properties. Henc ...

, acceptable salt and sodium content, and few or no rocks. They are

permeable Permeability, permeable, and semipermeable may refer to: Chemistry *Semipermeable membrane, a membrane which will allow certain molecules or ions to pass through it by diffusion *Vascular permeability, the movement of fluids and molecules betwe ...

to water and air. Prime farmlands are not excessively erodible or saturated with water for a long period of time, and they either do not

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

frequently or are protected from flooding.

Overlapping interests

Because many of today's major cities were historically founded in agriculturally rich areas, prime farmland tends to be (by virtue of its location) well suited to “growing” houses. Therefore, prime farmland is also prime developable land, and is extremely prone to conversion when in proximity to

urban growth Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

areas. This trend is further encouraged by the widespread availability of the private automobile, continuous expansion of roadways, and relatively low-priced gasoline. USDA prime farmland designation helps

growth management Growth management, in the United States, is a set of techniques used by the government to ensure that as the population grows that there are services available to meet their demands. Growth management goes beyond traditional land use planning, zon ...

and resource

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

efforts in urban growth areas to use

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

and

conservation easements In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gove ...

in order to preserve prime farmland resources, maintain local economic diversity, and establish

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

s. Nonprofit organizations like

American Farmland Trust American Farmland Trust is a nonprofit organization in the United States with a mission to protect farmland, promote environmentally sound farming practices, and keep farmers on the land. AFT is staffed by farmers, policy experts, researchers and ...

specialize in helping communities use these techniques. Other designations used by

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

to complement Prime Farmland are ''Farmland of statewide importance'', ''Farmland of local importance'', and '' Unique farmland''. Unique farmland is land other than prime farmland that is used for the production of specific high value food and fiber crops. It has the special combination of soil quality, location, growing season, and moisture supply needed to produce economically sustained high quality and/or high yields of a specific crop when treated and managed according to acceptable farming methods. Examples of crops are tree nuts,

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

cranberries Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry m ...

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...

es and other

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s, and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

Other designations

Criteria for defining and delineating these lands are determined by the appropriate state or local agencies in cooperation with USDA. The significant difference is that although the criteria are not appropriate outside the state or local area, that these lands approach the productivity of lands in their area which meet criteria for prime farmland and unique farmland.

Demarcation of Prime Farmland

A universal method for the demarcation of Prime Farmland (PF) soils that considers both science and policy is highly necessary, as when PF soils occupy < 60% of an area their preservation is hard.{{cite journal , title= Multitemporal mapping of peri-urban carbon stocks and soil sealing from satellite data , author= Villa, P., Malucelli, F., Scalenghe, R. , year= 2018 , doi=10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.250 , pmid= 28865275 , journal= Science of the Total Environment, volume= 612 , pages= 590–604 , bibcode= 2018ScTEn.612..590V , hdl= 10447/240556 , hdl-access= free

References

Types of soil Sustainable agriculture

Definition

Overlapping interests

Other designations

Demarcation of Prime Farmland

See also

References