Eugenia Saini is currently FONTAGRO’s Executive Secretary. FONTAGRO is the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology. She leads the investment fund and a portfolio of 70 international operations related to science, technology, and innovation for the Latin America and the Caribbean region. She is from Argentina and is an agronomist by training. She holds a doctorate in agricultural sciences, specializing in total factor productivity analysis. One of her seminal works in this field was the estimation of 120 years of TFP for the agricultural sector in Argentina. She is also a National Public Accountant and holds an MS in Food and Agribusiness and an MS in Applied Economics, both from Universidad de Buenos Aires. She has worked in the private and public sectors, both nationally and internationally, especially in multilateral banks. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship at Cornell University and, more recently, with the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy (AILA) Scholarship at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.
America’s Disappearing Farm and Range Land
U.S. agricultural land is some of the most productive and expensive in the world.
More than 31 million acres of U.S. agricultural land have been irrevocably lost to urban expansion since 1982 and an additional 175 acres of farm and ranchland are lost every hour to make way housing and other industries.1
The land that is being lost is some of the most productive agricultural land in the country. It has the right combination of micro-climates, growing seasons and water availability to allow intensive cultivation with minimal environmental impact.2
Urban and suburban expansion is also reducing the amount of agricultural land for sale and contributing to high land prices. This is compounded by the fact that land is usually kept in within families. Between 2014 and 2019, 91.5 million acres of farm and range land will transfer ownership, but only 21 million of those acres will be available on the open market.3
While land prices have declined in the last few years, farmers are still finding it difficult to afford high-quality land; for young farmers, land prices and access are their top concerns.
- American Farmland Trust, https://www.farmland.org/our-work/areas-of-focus/farmland, accessed September 24, 2018.
- American Farmland Trust, “Farms Under Threat: The State of America’s Farmland,” May 9, 2018.
- USDA NAAS, 2014 Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land Survey.