Farmland in Salem County, NJ: South Jersey's Rural Core

Salem County pairs the smallest population of any New Jersey county with one of its most substantial agricultural land bases. Here is what that combination means for anyone evaluating a farmland purchase here.

This page covers what's specific to Salem County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

A small county with a large, genuine agricultural base

Salem County's combination of low population (New Jersey's least-populous county) and substantial land area (331.9 square miles) produces one of the state's most genuinely agricultural land-use profiles, rather than the scattered pockets of open land found in more suburbanized counties. The 2002 Census of Agriculture recorded 753 farms across the county totaling 96,238 acres, and county tax data around the same period identified 130,835 acres of farm-assessed property in total -- a figure that includes not just cropland but woodland, farm structures, and the wetlands and waterways that sit on many of these farms along the Delaware River valley. These are dated benchmarks rather than a current, up-to-the-minute count, but they establish the genuine scale of the county's agricultural base rather than a marketing description.

Farmland here concentrates in the rural central and eastern sections of the county, with Alloway Township offered as a representative example of the mix -- family farms, woods, and quiet lakeside communities in roughly equal measure. This isn't a county where agricultural zoning exists on paper while the actual land use has shifted toward suburban development; Salem County's farm economy remains a real, active presence.

The farmland preservation program: 40,500+ acres, second in the state

As of a January 2021 count, Salem County had preserved over 40,500 acres of farmland across 367 farms through its farmland preservation program -- ranking the county second among all 21 New Jersey counties for total preserved farmland acreage, a genuinely significant standing for one of the state's smallest counties by population. The Salem County Agriculture Development Board (CADB) administers this program in partnership with the state's Agriculture Development Committee, working with individual farm owners to place permanent, recorded conservation easements on qualifying land in exchange for compensation, in a similar structure to farmland preservation programs found elsewhere in New Jersey and neighboring Pennsylvania.

As with any county-level farmland preservation program, a recorded easement on a preserved farm runs with the land, not with the current owner -- it binds every future owner, restricting non-agricultural development permanently while still allowing the farm to be bought, sold, financed, and actively farmed. For a buyer with genuinely agricultural intentions, a preserved Salem County farm can represent real value: with a large and growing share of the county's farmland already protected from development competition, preserved parcels can sometimes carry a different market dynamic (occasionally a lower price per acre reflecting the foregone development value) than a comparable unpreserved parcel.

What to check before buying farmland in Salem County

First, ask the Salem County Agriculture Development Board directly whether a specific parcel is already enrolled in the preservation program, and if so, request the recorded easement terms -- these can vary somewhat farm to farm and directly determine what non-agricultural development, if any, remains possible. Second, if the parcel is not currently preserved and you're purchasing with agricultural intent, ask the CADB whether it is currently accepting new easement applications, since program funding availability changes over time and is not something to assume from a 2021 acreage snapshot.

Third, given Salem County's proximity to the Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek Township, a farm parcel located near that facility may fall within an established emergency-planning zone -- worth asking the county Office of Emergency Management about directly if the property sits in or near Lower Alloways Creek, Elsinboro, Pennsville, or neighboring townships along the river. Finally, arrange an independent septic inspection as part of due diligence regardless of preservation status: the Salem County Department of Health and Human Services' Environmental Division handles permitting and field inspections for new and altered systems, but explicitly does not inspect septic systems for real property transfers or weigh in on buyer/seller condition disputes, so that protection has to come from a private inspector rather than the county.

Farmland in Salem County, New Jersey: South Jersey's Rural Core

A small county with a large, genuine agricultural base

The farmland preservation program: 40,500+ acres, second in the state

What to check before buying farmland in Salem County

Ready to talk to someone who knows land?