USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) released the latest report on foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land. The publication contains statistics through February 28, 2007, regarding the 21.2 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in which foreign persons hold an interest.

The report, titled "Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land," is now available on the FSA website at www.fsa.usda.gov.

The publication reports that foreign persons have an interest (partial or total ownership) in 1.6 percent of all privately held U.S. agricultural land and 0.94 percent of all land in the United States. This is a 5.3 million acre increase from 2006. Holdings from 1996 through 2006 were relatively steady.

The report includes a breakdown of land held by foreign persons by the type of acreage:

.. Forest land - 64 percent

.. Cropland - 11 percent

.. Pasture and other agriculture land - 25 percent

The report also lists which countries have foreign persons holding the largest amount of land:

.. Canadians hold the largest amount of land, over 8.2 million acres, or 38 percent.

.. Foreign persons from the following three countries collectively hold more than 6.7 million acres, or 31 percent of the foreign held acres in the U.S.:

.. Netherlands, almost 3.9 million acres (18 percent)

.. United Kingdom, over 1.5 million (7 percent)

.. Germany, more than 1.3 million acres (6 percent).

The publication's findings are based on reports submitted in compliance with the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA). The law was created to establish a nationwide system for the foreign investors who acquire, transfer or hold an interest (other than a security interest) in U.S. agricultural land to report such holdings and transactions to the Secretary of Agriculture on an AFIDA report Form FSA-153. The data gained from these disclosures is used in the preparation of an annual report to Congress.