Young Agrarians has released the Alberta Land Access Guide, a toolkit built by a team of experts and experienced farmers to help new farmers navigate their land search. The guide offers step-by-step processes of accessing and evaluating land and also provides insights to landowners looking for someone to come and farm their land.
Land access is the number one challenge for emerging farmers. It can be a challenging and intimidating process. Young Agrarians has teamed up with several organizations and farmers to note their perspectives, in hopes that the Alberta Land Access Guide can become a framework when seeking land opportunities.
Topics in the guide include:- Case stories of new farmers and how they got onto land- Overview of the nuts and bolts of leasing land: benefits, options, and agreements- Purchasing land: strategies for building equity- Attributes to consider when assessing potential land opportunities- Navigating farm business start-up- Community farms and land sharing
“The Alberta Land Access Guide is full of case stories of people doing creative things to gain access to farmland,” said Dana Penrice, YA Prairies Program Manager. “This is going to be a cornerstone resource for new farmers in Alberta and will show that the farming journey and finding land is possible!”
Young Agrarians is a farmer to farmer educational resource network for new and young ecological, organic, and regenerative farmers. The network features opinions from numerous perspectives including food growers, famers, market gardeners, seed savers, beekeepers, community gardeners, and food and farm organizations.
The Alberta Land Access Guide is free and can be downloaded via the Young Agrarians website here.