Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP)

What FRPP Does:

FRPP in Rhode Island:

Rhode Island has a number of very active programs to protect farmland. In the past ten years, a number of Towns have funded open space protection efforts that include farmland. Private land trusts and similar groups have also expanded their efforts to protect farms and other open space. The largest and oldest farmland program in Rhode Island is the State’s Agricultural Land Preservation Commission (ALPC) which was established in 1981.

The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) provides matching funds to help purchase development rights to keep productive farm and ranchland in agricultural uses. Working through existing programs, USDA partners with State, tribal, or local governments and non-governmental organizations to acquire conservation easements or other interests in land from landowners. USDA provides up to 50 percent of the fair market easement value.

To qualify, farmland must: be part of a pending offer from a State, tribe, or local farmland protection program; be privately owned; have a conservation plan for highly erodible land; be large enough to sustain agricultural production; be accessible to markets for what the land produces; have adequate infrastructure and agricultural support services; and have surrounding parcels of land that can support long-term agricultural production. Depending on funding availability, proposals must be submitted by the eligible entities to the appropriate NRCS State Office during the application window.

For More Information about FRPP, please contact

Michael Moorman, Assistant State Conservationist - Programs
USDA NRCS
60 Quaker Lane, Warwick, RI 02886
phone: (401) 822-8820
michael.moorman@ri.usda.gov