Land Ownership Readiness Course

In partnership with CT Department of Agriculture's Land Capital Market Access Program, we are excited to work for underserved producers, including socially disadvantaged producers, by increasing their access to land, capital, and markets.

Historically, socially disadvantaged producers have not received the same amount of specialized technical support to launch, grow, improve resilience, and success of their agricultural enterprises when compared to their traditionally served counterparts. The LCMA Program, administered by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture and funded by the USDA Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program, is intended to address this problem by increasing access to farm ownership opportunities, markets, and capital and improving results for those with heirs’ property or fractionated land, to improve the ability to access land, land ownership, land succession, and agricultural business planning.

Man walking an overgrown field

How Can the Land Ownership Readiness Course Help You?

Robert Chang, New Farmer Business Navigator, a new position within UConn Extension to support interested socially disadvantaged farmers and coordinate the Land Ownership Readiness Course. In this position, Robert helps farmers to navigate available resources and connect to additional assistance as needed.

Sign up Here

Farm Land Ownership Readiness Hybrid Course: 
This new course will prepare farmers to purchase farm land and introduce them to the entire process of a real estate transaction. The course does not assume farmers have prior experience or knowledge with property acquisition or ownership, and there are no prerequisites for this course. The purpose of the course is to introduce farmers to key concepts, and raise awareness of the broad range of issues, concerns, challenges and obligations connected to farmland acquisition and ownership. With this introduction, farmers will develop a checklist of important criteria and an inventory of helpful resources to navigate the process of buying farmland. For farmers who complete this course and want to pursue purchasing farm land, technical assistance providers will be available to help guide them further.

About the Class

There will be three cohorts in 2025, starting in January and Ending in April. Each Session is as follows:

Cohort 1:

  • January 11 and February 8 from 9am-noon in person at the Tolland Agricultural Center in Vernon
  • January 16, 23, 30, and Feb 6th will be online from 6:30pm-8:00pm

Cohort 2:

  • February 8 from 1pm - 4pm and March 8 from 9am - noon, in person at UConn Extension in Farmington
  • February 13, 20, 27 and March 6th will be online from 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Cohort 3:

  • March 8 from 1pm to 4pm, April 5 from 9am - noon, in person at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven
  • March 13, 20, 27, and April 3rd will be online from 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Cost: $30/person

Course Modules

  • How to Search for Farmland in CT using Important Criteria for a farm business
  • Decision Making for New Farm Owners - a Farmer Panel
  • Real Estate Purchase Process - Legal, Financial and Other Obligations to Consider
  • Tools for Reducing Cost of Ownership
  • Financing Land Acquisition
  • Financing Infrastructure and Other Startup Costs

Sign up Here

 

Made possible by the partnership and leadership of these organizations

Solid Ground logo
CT Department of Agriculture logo