Indiana lost 350,000 acres of farmland in the last decade

According to a new report from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), approximately 350,000 acres of farmland have been lost to development between 2010 and 2022.

The lost land inventory report is the result of House Enrolled Act 1557, which directed ISDA to complete the report as a baseline for future recommendations.

The results show that agricultural land was most likely to be lost in areas around the edges of cities and suburban areas, with residential development being the primary culprit.

Don Lamb, Director of Agriculture for ISDA, said they were not surprised by the amount of farmland that has been lost.

“The reality is that we’re losing quite a bit of farmland; it’s significant,” he said. “And it’s something that we ought to be keeping an eye on. It is time to be looking at it for the future.”

Lamb also said that moving forward, there are a lot of discussions to be had regarding the balance between economic development and preserving agriculture.

“We all want our state to be a business-friendly state,” he said. “We want it to be someplace people want to come and want to live, because that’s really good for all of us. But agriculture does play a huge role in that, and the state’s foundation, economically, really has always been agriculture. And it is important part of who we are.”

Despite the loss in acreage, yield data shows that Indiana’s production of its cash crops has increased. In 2012, Indiana produced over 597 million bushels of corn for grain, and in 2022 yielded over 1 billion bushels. Indiana produced nearly 219 million bushels of soybeans in 2012 and saw that number increase to over 326 million in 2022.

ISDA outlined several recommendations within the report to the Legislative Council, including that legislation be passed directing ISDA to update the inventory of lost farmland every five years, starting in 2029 for a report to be published in 2030.