LANSING-Bob Zeeb's 1,000-acre corn and soybean farm has been in his family for six generations. And while his family might not always own it, he can rest assured that it will remain a farm.

The fate of Zeeb's farm was cemented in 2001, when he signed over the development rights to the state under its farmland preservation program. Under the program, farm owners retain the right to sell their property but the buyer must use it for an agricultural purpose.

"It's nice to know that even after my wife and I are gone, it's going to stay a farm," the Bath Township man said.

But other farmers who want to protect their land from development may not be as lucky.

In 2005, five farms were enrolled in the farmland preservation program, costing the state $1.3 million. In 2006, six were added for $1.5 million.

About 15,313 acres of farmland now are protected under the program.

"That's not a lot in terms of demand," said Richard Harlow, manager of the Farmland Preservation Office at the Department of Agriculture. "There's a pretty significant demand."

Michigan has near 10 million acres of farmland and faces an annual loss of about 60,000 acres, according to a Michigan State University report.

Harlow said his department annually receives about $1 million from the state. Federal, county and township governments also contribute.

But that's not enough money to protect vulnerable farmland, according to the report by the MSU Land Policy Institute.

By 2020, 1 million acres of farmland will be at risk of development, and preserving that land could cost taxpayers about $2.5 billion, the report said.

Such development could hurt the state in the long run, said Scott Piggott of the agricultural ecology department at the Michigan Farm Bureau.

Piggott said farmland preservation is important because agriculture is critical. Agriculture annually pumps about $60 billion into the state's economy and employs nearly 727,000 workers, the MSU report said.

"We're fighting a little bit of an uphill battle," Piggott said. "What are we doing to maintain an industry that continues to grow?"

Recognizing the state's inability to protect all its farmland, researchers at the MSU Land Policy Center have proposed several ways to deal with the problem.

"We want to be as strategic as possible, given the fact that the state doesn't have much money," said Mary Beth Lake, associate director of the Land Policy Center. "How much agriculture you want to preserve depends on your vision."

One of the center's visions is targeting farmland preservation near urban areas.

Farmland near urban areas faces a higher risk of development than elsewhere, Lake said, and metropolitan counties are at risk of losing 25 percent of their farmland over the next 35 years.

"This is alerting the state that there are certain areas that we should be focusing our energy on," Lake said. "We think these are the areas that are going to keep Michigan in the agricultural game."

Lake said farms near urban areas are important because they add diversity to the landscape and provide a fresh food supply. They also lower infrastructure costs to taxpayers because they generate more tax revenue than they cost for public services, she said.

It's also important to save farms that practice innovative techniques, the report said. Agricultural tourism and value-added processing, such as ethanol, are examples of innovative techniques.

Stacy Sheridan of Sheridan Land Consulting in Mason agrees with such an approach.

Sheridan, who also serves on the Ingham County Agriculture Preservation Board, said that farms that use innovative techniques are important to the economy because they benefit other industries, including biofuel production.

"To us that's a huge asset," she said. "We're going to look at that with a little more consideration."

Under the state's farmland preservation program, a county or township agriculture preservation board picks which farms it wants to preserve and submits a proposal to the state.

According to Harlow, 23 counties have preservation boards.

Brad Neumann, a land policy educator for the MSU St. Joseph County Extension, is helping the county set up a preservation board.

It can be difficult to convince people of the important role that farms play in the health of the land and the economy, Neumann said. Since counties must contribute funding to a farmland preservation program, the public must support the idea, he said.

"In some counties that don't have a lot of money or staff, there can be a hurdle in terms of education," he said.