The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is encouraging farmers and ranchers to apply for a state-funded program designed to keep swaths of rural property from commercial and residential development.

The department will accept applications through July 27 for its Rural and Family Lands Protection Program.

Created in 2001, the program involves purchasing conservation easements, which allow landowners to continue farming and cattle operations in exchange for not developing the property.

Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson linked the program to protecting food production.

“Food security is national security, and Florida's agricultural lands are the backbone of our economy and the foundation of our food and fiber production,” Simpson said in a prepared statement.

The program is slated to get $100 million in the state budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which will start July 1. Gov. Ron DeSantis still needs to sign off on the budget.

Simpson also has directed to the program most of the $300 million in the current year’s budget for land protection.

Last month, DeSantis and the state Cabinet approved spending $57.6 million to place 18,279 acres in St. Lucie, DeSoto, Walton, Hardee, Polk, Highlands and Charlotte counties into conservation easements.