 Under the Connecticut Farmland Preservation Program, farms sell their local government a conservation easement to their property, providing cash to the farm and control for the town to ensure the land can be withheld from future development.As of 2013 under the direction of the state Department of Agriculture, the program had secured rights for land totaling more than 37,600 acres on nearly 300 farms.In 1986, the state authorized a Joint State-Town Farmland Preservation Program to encourage municipalities to create their own preservation programs.