Website will match new N.L. farmers with available land

by Matthew Carlson

The Newfoundland and Labrador Young Farmers Forum (NLYFF) is developing a new land matching map and directory to connect young farmers in the province with available land. The overall goal is to help new farmers access land faster.

In advance of the service’s launch, we are seeking landowners in Newfoundland and Labrador who may be interested in participating in order to have listings available on day one.

The service will function similarly to familiar online classified sites such as Kijiji and Craigslist. Users will create an account, enter login information, and then answer a series of questions, including where the land is located, the acreage, and which crops are grown on the property or have been in the past. There will be an option for various arrangements, including renting and leasing.

Those seeking land can also create a listing with the ability to request land in a particular area with certain attributes useful to their particular crops.  

The map, based on Google Maps, will have a familiar look and feel, allowing users to zoom in on areas and see where the listings are located in relation to their surrounding community. For those who prefer a directory view, that will also be available on the site.

Similar initiatives have been launched in Quebec and British Columbia, with very positive results, which we are hoping to replicate in this province.

We expect the map to launch in April and we are actively seeking as many listings as possible in advance of the launch.

Those who have land to list are encouraged to contact me – Matthew Carlson – by phone at 709-747-4830 or by email at mcarlson@nlfa.ca.

(Matthew Carlson is the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture’s young farmers coordinator. He has been with the federation since 2007 and moved into his current position in 2015.)