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(Continued from Page 1) it is state policy to use zoning to preserve agricultural and forestry lands.
—Orders to the appropriate state agency to complete an inventory of productive agricultural land, documenting the reasons for land resource shifts and projecting future relationships beteen agricultural production and consumer needs.
—The development by VPI of a method by which localities can assess the direct and indirect value of its agricultural industry to the local or regional economy.
—Continued monitoring by the Virginia Department of Agriculture to determine the effectiveness of use value assessment and the Agricultural and Forestal Districts Act,
—Added financial and technical assistance in rural planning from the state and help for local governments in obtaining federal funds for farmland preservation planning.
Costs Outstrip Income
In his opening remarks. Farmer cited figures that show gross farm production costs will increase by 14 percent in 1979 while gross farm income increases by only 11 percent. Farmer said 1979 net farm income is expected to be about $320 million for the state or slightly over $5,400 per farm.
Farmer estimated that Virginia’s 59,000 farms produce enough food to supply about 50 per cent of the state’s demand for food and to export many commodities to the rest of the world.
‘‘Based on projected population for the year 2000 and using present production technologies, Virginia will need an additional 1.5 million acres of land in farming just to maintain this 50 per cent supply-demand relationship," said Farmer.
Farmer and other land use experts at the two-day conference sponsored by VPI’s extension division jointly with the Tayloe Murphy Institute, Piedmont Environmental Council and Water Resources Council, cited farmland preservation programs in Michigan and Wisconsin as models Virginia may choose to follow. Both state programs, he said, are having promising results. According to Farmer, Michigan currently has more than 1.100,000 acres enrolled through state contracts in its voluntary preservation program. The landowner is eligible to claim a credit against his state income tax for the amount that property tax on farmland exceeds seven per cent of his
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