The U.S. Department of Agriculture is rolling out a new online reporting portal aimed at tracking foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land, a move that comes as foreign farmland holdings and scrutiny around them continue to grow.
The portal supports reporting required under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 and is part of USDA’s broader National Farm Security Action Plan, which focuses on tightening oversight and enforcement related to foreign interests in American farmland.
“President Trump is putting America First, and this includes increasing transparency and scrutiny of one of our most valuable national assets, American farmland. We are working to improve reporting of foreign owned land in the United States. This move to streamline the reporting portal will increase compliance and assist our efforts to effectively enforce accurate reporting of interests held by foreign adversaries in U.S. farmland,” said Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins. “The online portal will allow us to obtain verifiable information about foreign interests in American agricultural land and protect the security of our farmers.”
Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land has steadily increased over the past decade, even as it remains a small share of total farmland nationwide. According to the USDA’s most recent AFIDA report, foreign interests held roughly 46 million acres of U.S. agricultural land as of Dec. 31, 2024.
That growth combined with concerns about transparency, national security, and food supply resilience has fueled heightened scrutiny at both the federal and state levels, with lawmakers pushing for clearer data and stronger enforcement tools.
The new portal allows filers to submit required AFIDA disclosures online using Login.gov, the federal government’s secure sign-in service.
The USDA said the portal collects the same information currently required on form FSA-153. Filers may still submit disclosures using the paper form if they choose, but the agency cautioned against submitting duplicate filings through both methods.
Strengthening AFIDA reporting is a key component of the USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan, announced in July 2025. The plan calls for improved verification, monitoring, and enforcement of foreign land ownership disclosures.
In December 2025, the USDA also released an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking for AFIDA, signaling potential regulatory changes ahead as the agency works to modernize a system that has long relied on paper filings.
AFIDA requires foreign persons including individuals, companies, and governments who acquire, transfer, or hold an interest in U.S. agricultural land to report those holdings to the USDA. The law applies to both direct and indirect ownership, when foreign parties have significant interest or substantial control in the land-holding entity.
Data collected through AFIDA disclosures are used to produce an annual report to Congress, which tracks foreign land ownership trends and highlights holdings connected to countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
