The Conservation Commission will host an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall with representatives from the state Department of Agriculture.

State officials will answer specific questions about the state's Farmland Preservation Program.

The state program pays farmers for the development rights to their land, which means that the land can continue to be farmed without being developed.

Last year Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed Public Act 07-162, which provides $5 million every six months over the next two years for the state's Farmland Preservation Program, according to the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit American
Farmland Trust. The $5 million funding must be approved every six months by the state Bond Commission.

As of January 2007, the Farmland Preservation Program has preserved 31,782 acres on 228 farms statewide, according to the Department of Agriculture's Web site.

The state has a goal of preserving 130,000 acres through the program. Approximately 24 percent of this 130,000-acre goal has been met through the development rights program.

According to a release by the Conservation Commission, there's a total of about 860 acres among six different properties that have been preserved in Enfield.

The preservation of farmland is one of the commission's five goals, along with the acquisition and preservation of open space, aquifer protection, archaeological protection, and special projects that do not fit the other criteria.

For more information about Tuesday's Conservation Commission meeting, contact commission member Tim McGuire, 763-0132.