Absent Landlords in Agriculture – A Statistical Analysis

by Siraj G. Bawa and Scott Callahan

The majority of rented farmland is owned by landlords who do not operate farms, and a subset of these landlords, known as absent landlords, do not reside in the local farming area. This report explores associations between landlord absenteeism and measures of long-term economic and agricultural health.

Keywords: Absent, absentee, nonoperator, operator, landlord, land, congressional, Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) Survey, census, conservation tillage, land value, rent, population, employment, soil health, nonoperating landlords, farmland

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