NC FarmLink and WNC FarmLink have merged their databases in an effort to form a stronger and more unified partnership of farm linking organizations in North Carolina.

Both organizations were formed within the last five years to serve different regions of North Carolina. Now, their combined efforts not only aid farmland access for both beginning and expanding farmers but also with farmland preservation.

FarmLink allows farmers and landowners to connect in order to make farmland matches possible. Now there is a single database in North Carolina for those seeking land and those looking to find a farmer in order to keep their land in agriculture.

Further information can be found on the NC FarmLink website: www.ncfarmlink.org.

While on this website, farmers can look for available farmland with searchable terms such as acreage, county, and current farm production. Landowners can search the farmer profiles for someone to farm their land and farmers can search these same profiles for aspiring farmers to continue farming their land when they retire.

Both of these options provide a web tool that can help make farmland matches possible and ultimately assist in the preservation of North Carolina’s farms. WNC FarmLink provides land matching support services to the western region of the state, including one-on-one consultations, workshops, and technical and legal land access support

Farmland loss is an increasing risk across the state due to retiring farmers and development pressure. According to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, between 2007 and 2012, North Carolina lost 2,695 farms and approximately 60,000 acres of farmland