An act to amend Title 3 of the Delaware Code relating to the creation of the Agricultural Opportunities Act
This bill would require the Department of Agriculture to include socially disadvantaged farmers in the agricultural decision-making process and provide outreach to them. It would establish an agricultural training program to assist a socially disadvantaged farmer, military veteran farmer, or beginning farmer in the ownership or operation of agricultural land in collaboration with the Cooperative Extension programs at the Delaware State University and the University of Delaware.
It would establish an agricultural land lease program in the Department of Agriculture to identify land owned by the state suitable for agricultural use and gives priority for leases to socially disadvantaged farmers, military veteran farmers, and beginning farmers.
It would also require the Department of Agriculture, in collaboration with cooperative extension programs, to develop a farmer incubator program that provides a military veteran farmer and beginning farmer with the opportunity to receive training on a plot of land at an incubator site.