VALDOSTA — Travel the country highways of South Georgia — from Lake Park, Lakeland, Quitman, Hahira, Adel, Valdosta, Ray City and Nashville and all stops in between — and it’s obvious that people are moving into the region in droves.

The common sight of single-family home subdivisions rising from the dust of former row crop fields of cotton, corn, peanuts and other vegetables is raising some concerns among regional agricultural officials.

At the pace of current development, agriculture agents from Lowndes, Brooks, Lanier and Clinch counties are questioning the implications for South Georgia farmers.

“I have been here since 1999, and every year we have lost good productive farmland to residential subdivisions,” Lowndes County Extension Coordinator Mickey Fourakers said. “Constantly we’re hearing of development for new subdivisions that would take out good productive land, from Lake Park to Hahira.”

The South Georgia Regional Development Center (SGRDC) reports that of 2,834 new residential properties built in Lowndes since 2000, at least 392 were built on land zoned for agricultural use, said Rachel Boulay-Strom, project manager for Valdosta Lowndes Regional Geographic Information Systems (VALOR) at the SGRDC.

In Lanier, Clinch and Brooks counties, the report is similar.

About 1,000 acres of quality farm land has been sold to residential developers in the last three or four years in Lanier County, said Elvin Andrews, extension coordinator for Clinch and Lanier counties. “We are losing some of our best farm lands.”

Some of the Lanier farmlands were family estates where the grandfather or father had passed on and family members not in the farming business sold the land.

“In Lanier, they’ll take a 100 acre field and sell it, then the developer divides it up into subdivisions,” Andrews said. “Speculators are buying the land at prices far above the existing agricultural market value, which drives up the value of surrounding lands as well.”

What the buyer is willing to pay the seller goes right back to the county tax office where taxable property values are set according to sales activity, Andrews said.

“On one farm, they picked out a field here and another there, and paid $6,500 to $7,000 an acre,” Andrews said. “That drives up land prices. I’ve seen a lot of this happening in the past two years.”

“We’ve got a lot of military career people who are from here who are retiring and moving back to Lanier to retire, and we’ve got a lot of people who worked at Moody AFB and are retiring and settling here,” Andrews said. “The homes that have been built are selling because the people are coming.”

In Clinch, timber farmers are divesting themselves of land, selling small parcels to would-be developers and keeping the rest for timber. But so far, most of the former timber land hasn’t been developed, Andrews said.

In Brooks County, Extension Coordinator Johnny Whiddon said he’s alarmed by the public’s seeming aloofness to the positive impact of agriculture on South Georgia.

“I just hope South Georgia doesn’t get to the point where we don’t have enough land to support ourselves,” Whiddon said. “We can’t put everything in houses and shopping malls. We need to find a balance between rural and urban. Valdosta is a very nice community. Part of the reason is because it is surrounded by rural land. We have a good blend. A lot of people don’t see that.”