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USDA to put $5.6 billion into programs for new farmers

Delaware Public Media

Farmers in Delaware and around the country are getting older -- the average age in Delaware is 58 and climbing. Now, the USDA and the state are trying to cultivate the next generation.

The USDA announced last week that it's committing $5.6 billion to programs that help people become farmers or ranchers.

And state Dept. of Agriculture spokesman Dan Shortridge says Delaware is offering loans for new farmers to buy land, too:

"Farmers have a really deep connection to their land. It is everything: it's often where they live, it's where they work -- this is the land that they take care of day in and day out," he says. "And so purchasing land is something that a lot of farmers want to do, and getting young people into farming and getting them past that barrier is really critically important for our country and our state."

The land that new farmers buy with loans in Delaware is automatically designated as farmland into the future. Right now, Delaware has 116,000 acres like that -- which Shortridge says will help sustain the industry.

"What it all means is that more land is in farming, more land is permanently preserved for farming, and younger generations are able to start new family farms," he says.

Delaware's program has enrolled 24 new farmers or couples so far. The latest application period closed Saturday.

Besides the graying of farmers themselves, Shortridge says agriculture is thriving in Delaware: it occupies 40 percent of state land altogether and generates $8 billion in economic impact every year.

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