AFIDA Foreign Agricultural Land Map
Explore USDA-reported foreign interests in U.S. agricultural land by state, county and reported country. AFIDA means the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act. AFIDA Watch is an independent research tool, not a USDA website. For county findings and source-linked articles, see our other website, FIRMS / AFIDA Watch.
Explore national footprint
Combined view includes separate holders. Selecting an Owner ID shows all of its FY2024 records, including any other reported country links. No inferred corporate-family matching.
About this report & national statistics
NATIONAL TOP 5 COUNTRIES (By Acres)
NATIONAL ACRES BY LAND USE
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
Citizen Report + Book
Select a state and county to receive the AFIDA Citizen Report plus The Author of Contradiction handbook. The report costs $5; the book is included free as a PDF attachment. The report is the public-record evidence packet; the book is the civic framework for reading it.
AFIDA Citizen Report + Book
Who owns foreign-held agricultural land in my county, and what public-value questions should citizens ask?
- County-level foreign ownership summary
- Countries represented
- Owner/entity names
- Acres by owner
- Reported & current value
- Land use breakdown
- Acquisition year timeline
- Citizen value-audit worksheet
- The Author of Contradiction handbook — included free
Select a state and county above to continue.
Book-only option
The book can be purchased alone, but the main AFIDA Watch product is the county Citizen Report paired with the handbook.
Trends & Intelligence
Key patterns in reported foreign agricultural land ownership. All figures derived from USDA AFIDA FY2024 filings.
Top 5 countries hold the majority of reported foreign-owned acres
Canada, Netherlands, Italy, United Kingdom, and Germany represent the largest ownership interests by reported acreage.
47.2 million reported acres in the FY2024 working dataset
AFIDA Watch maps 49,548 FY2024 filings across 2,560 unique county or county-equivalent FIPS areas. Ownership-adjusted acres are lower when partial interests are accounted for.
County-level context, not exact property boundaries
The public map summarizes records by county. It does not locate exact parcel boundaries or establish proximity to a particular facility.
Some parcels report secondary ownership links
The dataset includes flags for secondary interests in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. These are reported interests, not allegations.
Forest and pasture dominate foreign-held acres
Forest land and pasture represent the largest land use categories among foreign-held parcels, followed by cropland.
Reported acquisitions span decades of filings
Acquisition years range from the 1970s to 2024. AFIDA is a cumulative register of currently held interests, not just new purchases.
For the buyer-facing evidence packet, select a county and open the Citizen Report + Book.
Methodology & Sources
Full transparency on data sources, definitions, aggregation formulas, and known limitations.
What Is AFIDA?
The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (1978) requires foreign persons who hold interests in U.S. agricultural land to report those interests to USDA.
USDA compiles these filings into an annual report for Congress. This site presents that data in interactive form to serve the original congressional intent: public awareness of foreign agricultural land ownership.
Data Source
Primary: USDA FSA AFIDA FY2024 (49,548 records).
Country Codes: ISO 3166-1 with AFIDA extensions.
Geometry: U.S. Census county boundaries joined by FIPS.
Key Definitions
Reported Acres: Sum of Number of Acres as filed by foreign owners.
Ownership-Adjusted Acres: Number of Acres x Percent of Ownership / 100. Reflects partial interests.
Type of Interest: Fee simple, leasehold, easement, or other legal interest.
Secondary Interest: Additional country linked to a parcel beyond the primary owner country.
Aggregation Method
1. CSV ingestion and field validation
2. FIPS normalization (5-digit, zero-padded)
3. County grouping by FIPS
4. Reported acres and ownership-adjusted acres per county
5. Country-of-origin breakdown per county
6. State and national roll-ups from source records, with distinct owner and parcel IDs
Ownership-Adjusted Acres
The 1984 AFIDA annual report distinguished total reported acreage from partial-interest-adjusted acreage. We follow the same principle:
Formula: Number of Acres x Percent of Ownership / 100
When Percent of Ownership is blank or invalid, only reported acres are shown. A note is displayed where ownership-adjusted figures are unavailable.
Limitations
County-level FIPS only (no parcel GPS coordinates available in public data).
Self-reported data with known under-reporting acknowledged by USDA.
Ownership-adjusted acres depend on reported percent ownership and may be unavailable for some records.
Annual refresh aligned with USDA publication schedule.
Proximity context is geographic coincidence, not evidence of wrongdoing.
Coming Soon: Additional Layers
Future versions will include geographic proximity context for:
Water Resources -- Rivers, lakes, aquifers
Critical Infrastructure -- Energy, ports, airports
Energy Infrastructure -- Pipelines, power grid
National Forests -- U.S. Forest Service boundaries
These layers will provide additional geographic context without implying risk or wrongdoing.