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Prime farmland, as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops and is available for these uses. It could be cultivated land, pastureland, forestland, or other land, but it is not urban or built-up land or water areas. The soil quality, growing season, and moisture supply are those needed for the soil to economically produce sustained high yields of crops when proper management, including water management, and acceptable farming methods are applied. In general, prime farmland has an adequate and dependable supply of moisture from precipitation or irrigation, a favorable temperature and growing season, acceptable acidity or alkalinity, an acceptable salt and sodium content, and few or no rocks. Prime farmland is of major importance in meeting the Nation's short- and long-range needs for food and fiber. Because the supply of high quality farmland is limited, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recognizes that responsible levels of government, as well as individuals, should encourage and facilitate the wise use of our Nation's prime farmland

 

This layer was created from the Esri maintained USA SSURGO - Farmland Class Imagery Layer, which is updated annually. The Esri maintained imagery layer was created to display the location of  prime, locally important, statewide importance and unique farmland. The Raster to Polygon tool with the extent of the state of North Carolina set to turn the image layer into a vector layer. Pairwise Clip was then used to clip the extent to the North Carolina borders. The layer was then symbolized by class name.