3 towns get ag planning grants

3/4/2008

By Patsy Nicosia

Three Schoharie County towns have been awarded $25,000 each to come up with a vision of what they want their farms’ futures to look like.
The Town of Wright was awarded $25,000 in first-round New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets funding to develop a local agricultural and farmland protection plan.
Qualifying for a grant in second-round funding was a joint application from the Towns of Seward and Carlisle ; together they will receive a total of $50,000.
The third round of grants isn’t expected to be awarded until 2009, but county Ag Marketing Specialist Lee Pratt said the Town of Cobleskill has already submitted an application for those funds.
According to Ag & Markets, the state’s Farmland Protection Plan provides funding for two kinds of grants: Planning, to develop an agricultural and farmland protection plan, and implementation, used to help purchase the development rights on viable farmland.
In order to be eligible for either of the grants, a community must be located in a county that’s already established not only a plan, but a county Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board; Schoharie County’s has been in place since about 2000, Mr. Pratt said, and the local plans will be an offshoot of that.
“The grants are intended to help communities determine where agriculture fits in for them and what they want it to be like in the future,” Mr. Pratt explained. “They’ll be identifying their prime agricultural resources and really, coming up with a vision of what they want their farms to be like in the future.”
It’s one of Mr. Pratt ’s jobs to use the county plan as a map for developing his programming and marketing strategies.
He said the town plans will also serve as a way for local communities to measure the impact—often unintended—proposed laws could have on agriculture.
“Once you have some goals outlined, it becomes easier to see potential conflicts when things are still in their planning stages. Having an agricultural plan in place that you can refer to may help a community realize that, no, the best place for a 20-lot subdivision might not be next to a working farm,” Mr. Pratt said. “In that way, it’s a valuable planning tool.”
The second round of Ag & Markets grants, announced Thursday, brings the total amount provided this year to $862,445 for 37 towns.