S.F. No. 5049 - Agriculture Bill Summary

• Defines "limited-resource farmer" as a farmer experiencing limited land access (lease of 3 years or less from non-relatives) or limited market access (majority of sales direct to consumers).

• Gives preference for equipment and infrastructure grants to limited-resource farmers and modifies farm down payment assistance grant reporting requirements to track limited-resource farmer recipients.

• Changes beginning farmer tax credit eligibility to provide 12% credit rate (instead of 8%) for sales to limited-resource farmers and allocates 50% of newly allocated credits to emerging owners selling/renting to limited-resource beginning farmers.

• Modifies cannabis social equity applicant definition to include "limited-resource farmers" as defined in section 17.133, replacing previous "emerging farmer" reference.

• Appropriates $16.618 million (first year) and $14.287 million (second year) for various agricultural programs including beginning farmer support, food assistance, farm transition services, and emerging farmer office expansion, effective July 1, 2024.