Farmland in Cumberland County, New Jersey: The Agriculture Development Board Program

Who runs the program, and how the application actually works

The Cumberland County Agriculture Development Board (CADB) -- a seven-member board appointed under New Jersey's Agriculture Retention and Development Act, representing local farmers, county residents, the county planning board, the local soil conservation district, and the county agricultural extension agent -- administers the county's farmland preservation program in partnership with the State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC). The CADB purchases development easements on qualifying active farms, permanently extinguishing the right to develop the land for non-agricultural use while the farm remains privately owned, farmed, sellable, and financeable going forward.

Enrollment isn't automatic or guaranteed: the application process is competitive, built around a 4-page application form available directly from the county's own website, and the CADB evaluates and ranks applications rather than accepting every eligible farm that applies in a given cycle. Since 1992, that competitive process has resulted in more than 20,000 acres of Cumberland County farmland preserved -- consistent with the more recent, if less precisely dated, figures cited on the county hub (roughly 237 farms/22,330 acres, with additional acreage targeted). A prospective applicant should confirm current funding availability and application timing directly with the CADB, since state and county farmland-preservation funding cycles vary year to year and a given cycle may or may not be accepting new applications.

What a preservation easement actually does to a parcel

Once the CADB purchases a farm's development easement, that restriction is permanent and runs with the land regardless of future ownership -- a subsequent buyer inherits the same agricultural-use limitation the original farmer agreed to, not a renegotiable term. That's the central fact a land buyer needs to internalize: a large, inexpensive-looking parcel in Cumberland County's farm belt may be priced the way it is precisely because it's already permanently restricted to agricultural and closely related uses, and no subsequent owner can convert it to residential subdivision, commercial development, or most other non-farm uses no matter how the local zoning ordinance might otherwise allow it.

This cuts both ways for a buyer. If agricultural use is exactly what you want -- an active farm operation, a homestead-scale property with real farm income potential, or land to lease to a working farmer -- a preserved Cumberland County farm can be a genuinely good value, since the easement has already permanently removed development competition and pricing pressure from non-farm buyers. But if you're hoping to eventually subdivide, build multiple homes, or convert the land to a different use, a preserved parcel will not allow that regardless of price or seller representations -- confirm easement status before making an offer, not after.

What to check before buying farmland here

First, ask the seller directly, and separately confirm with the Cumberland County Agriculture Development Board, whether a specific parcel already carries a state or county preservation easement -- county tax assessment records and the SADC's own statewide preserved-farms database are both worth checking independently rather than relying on a listing description alone. Second, if the parcel is not currently preserved and you're interested in applying yourself as the new owner (a common path for buyers who want the easement-sale proceeds as part of their financing plan, since a purchased easement pays the landowner for the development rights), ask the CADB directly about current application timing, competitive ranking criteria, and realistic odds of acceptance in the current funding cycle. Third, remember that roughly 14% of Cumberland County also sits inside the mapped Pinelands Area -- a separate overlay from farmland preservation -- so a parcel in the county's Pinelands-Area townships may face both sets of restrictions simultaneously, and each should be checked with its own respective agency (the CADB for preservation status, the Pinelands Commission for Land Capability Map designation).