TEMPLE – Jo Josephson of Temple has recently been hired by Maine Farmland Trust to help link Franklin County farmers who are thinking about selling or leasing their land with people seeking to buy or lease farmland.

“Making people aware that this program exists,” Josephson explained, is her main objective as she works with local farmers. She is one of three field agents recently hired by the 9-year-old land trust to represent one of their programs, FarmLink.

Maine Farmland Trust, a nonprofit organization in Belfast, is the only statewide land trust devoted exclusively to farmland protection, said Esther Lacognata, coordinator of FarmLink.

The trust has an ambitious goal of preserving 100,000 acres of farmland from development by 2012, she said. In order to do that, people are needed out in the field.

“Josephson will be my eyes, ears and outreach capability,” said Lacognata. “She’s someone with personal contact with farmers who can go visit the farm and work with farmland seekers, making these links. It’s a complicated matchmaking process. She has the personal, hands-on knowledge. She’s perfect for it.”

She has already interviewed a lot of farmers and knows the lay of the land, Lacognata said, referring to the agriculture-related work Josephson has done.

Some of that experience comes from her work with nonprofit organizations to provide area farmers with guaranteed low interest loans and to help them write business plans to make their enterprises more economically viable, Josephson said. Her experience also includes writing numerous articles, guidebooks and brochures about agriculture in western Maine. She has also worked on farms locally and abroad, she said.

She may be reached at [email protected]

Citing statistics from the trust’s newsletter, Josephson said as of last spring, 72 farms around the state have been protected representing 15,000 acres.

“Franklin County is ripe for this,” she said, “we have a local farm movement to niche farming such as cheese production. The face of agriculture is changing but it doesn’t mean we should do away with our farms. This is a win-win situation for the farmer and buyer, and I’m very optimistic.”

“Within the statewide program,” Lacognata said, “there is a huge amount of opportunity including 80 farms enrolled in the program and 130 farmland seekers, mostly from the eastern coast.”

Some of these include farmers who are unable to expand where they are because of development and see opportunity for land in Maine, she said. Some are experienced people who have worked on farms or apprenticed with Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association but who may not have enough capital to buy. Others are retired people who are tired of urban life and are interested in purchasing land to have someone else farm for them, she said.

Some of the tools the organization is using to reach its goal, she explained, include programs such as: Donated easements that works with farmland owners who receive tax benefits by donating easements; FarmLink; and Buy/Protect/Sell that buys farms, preserves them and resells them to farmers at the farmland value not at development value, she said.

More information is available at www.mainefarmlink.org