<div class="chunk-title">Sec. 4-6. - Certification and qualification of farmland.</div>
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               To secure county certification as qualifying farmland, a farm must:
               
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                  (1)
                  
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                  Be participating in or qualify to be participating in the farm present-use-value taxation
                  program established by G.S. 105-277.2 through 105-277.7;
                  
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                  (2)
                  
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                  Be certified by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the United States Department
                  of Agriculture as being a farm on which at least two-thirds of the land is composed
                  of soils that:
                  
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                  a.
                  
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                  Are best suited for providing food, seed, fiber, forage, timber, forestry products,
                  horticultural crops and oil seed crops;
                  
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                  b.
                  
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                  Have good soil qualities;
                  
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                  c.
                  
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                  Are favorable for all major crops common to the county where the land is located;
                  
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                  d.
                  
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                  Have a favorable growing season; and
                  
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                  e.
                  
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                  Receive the available moisture needed to produce high yields for an average of eight
                  out of ten years; or
                  
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                  (3)
                  
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                  Have been actively used in agricultural, horticultural or forestry operations as defined
                  by G.S. 105-277.2(1), (2) and (3) during each of the five previous years, measured
                  from the date on which the determination must be made as to whether the land in question
                  qualifies;
                  
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                  (4)
                  
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                  Be managed, if highly erodible land exists on the farm, in accordance with the natural
                  resources conservation service defined erosion control practices that are addressed
                  to said highly erodible land; and
                  
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                  (5)
                  
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                  Be the subject of a conservation agreement, as defined in G.S. 121-35, between the
                  county or a land trust recognized by the advisory board, and the owner of such land
                  that prohibits non-farm use or development of such land for a period of at least ten
                  years, except for the creation of not more than three lots that meet applicable county
                  zoning and subdivision regulations.
                  
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               (Code 1993, Â§ 14-176; Ord. of 8-6-2002, art. VII)
               
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