Center for Commercial Agriculture

Obtaining control of land through leasing has a long history in the United States.  Leases on agricultural land are strongly influenced by local custom and tradition.  However, in most areas, landowners and operators can choose from several types of lease arrangements.  With crop share arrangements, crop production and often government payments and crop insurance indemnity payments are shared between the landowner and operator.  These arrangements also involve the sharing of at least a portion of crop expenses.  Fixed cash rent arrangements, as the name implies, provide landowners with a fixed payment per year.  Flexible cash lease arrangements provide a base cash rent plus a bonus which typically represents a share of gross revenue in excess of a certain base value.  Each leasing arrangement has advantages and disadvantages.