Foreign Investments in Ohio Farmland
By: Vishavdeep Sharma, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at The Ohio State University, Rabail Chandio, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University, and Ani L. Katchova, a Professor and Farm Income Enhancement Chair in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at The Ohio State University.
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In recent years, Ohio has experienced a significant increase in foreign investments in farmland resulting in 529,269 acres being held by foreign investors in 2022, contributing to the national trend of increasing foreign ownership of US farmland with 43,418,141 acres held by foreign investors in 2022.
The proportion of foreign held to privately held farmland was 2.7% in Ohio, 2.2% in the Midwest, and 3.4% in the US in 2022.
The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) is a federal law that requires foreign investors to disclose transactions of US farmland. Ohio’s legislation, named “Save our Farmland and Protect our National Security Act,” additionally maintains a registry of individuals and organizations prohibited from acquiring farmland in the state of Ohio.
In Ohio, Canada (14.9%) and Germany (14.6%) lead foreign investments in farmland. The largest proportion of foreign held farmland is by Canadian investors at 32.1% of the total foreign held farmland in the US, and at 26.5% of the total foreign held farmland in the Midwest.
