Farmers greet 2002 with less land

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - California&#39;s farm owners enter 2002 with 50,000 fewer acres to farm due to urban growth. But they&#39;re also finding more money than ever to save their farms for future generations. <br> <br> In a state that leads the nation in production of 79 farm commodities, authorities say 2001&#39;s losses continue a trend in which an estimated 500,000 acres are paved over every decade. <br> <br> Though the 50,000 acres represent a bare fraction of California&#39;s 9 million irrigated acres, experts warn that one-third of those being paved are the state&#39;s best soils. And some say the state needs a far-reaching growth plan, possibly to steer development away from the Central, Salinas and Santa Maria valleys and Oxnard Plain. <br> <br> The four regions grow most of the nation&#39;s fresh produce. <br> <br> ``Currently, the state doesn&#39;t have much of a role,&#39;&#39; said Alvin Sokolow, public policy analyst at the University of California, Davis. ``It has no role.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Nonetheless, the industry finds itself with new allies. Increasingly, farmers, cities and counties are tapping state and federal programs for millions of dollars to save farms from the state&#39;s relentless growth. <br> <br> As the state adds 600,000 people a year to its population of 35 million, government and private grant makers have begun something relatively new: buying development rights to thousands of acres of crop land. It&#39;s an idea largely pioneered in small eastern states: Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey, said Chuck Tyson, who heads the California Farmland Conservancy Program. <br> <br> California&#39;s five-year-old program has already put 13,500 acres off limits to urban development. It offers farm owners a one-time cash payment: the difference between the land&#39;s farming value and the price a developer would pay. <br> <br> In return, owners must farm the land in perpetuity. <br> <br> Tyson said the state program received $25 million from Proposition 12, the $2.1 billion park and open space bond passed by voters in 2000. The David and Lucille Packard Foundation committed $175 million to conserve landscapes statewide, including farms. <br> <br> ``The idea isn&#39;t about stopping growth, but hopefully, at the local level, defining areas that have the greatest strategic ag value,&#39;&#39; Tyson said.

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