From Washington to Concord to the banks of the Souhegan River, New Hampshire farms have plenty of fans. The question is whether they can find plenty of money. "Agriculture, as a whole, is an asset to people, but if we don’t safeguard that asset for future generations, then we’ve been very shortsighted," said Lincoln Geiger, who for 16 years has farmed at the Wilton-Temple Community Farm, a cooperative arrangement that provides 100 families with fresh vegetables and milk.

"One thing people should know is that farming is viable here," he added. In Milford, Bill Ferguson agrees. Much of his land, which he bought in 1960, has been used for generations by the Trombley family, dairy farmers whose operation is just up North River Road.

"These fields have been operated for a long, long time. It is a going concern, and I hope it remains so," said the 82-year-old Ferguson, known to many in town for his "Rambling Reporter" column in the weekly Milford Cabinet. Ferguson rents two dozen acres to the Trombleys for $125 a year, and says it’s a bargain: Among other things, they’ve used their tractor to pull his truck out of the mud. But staying a going concern has never been easy for farmers in this rocky, cold region. The increase in land prices and loss of support services over the past half-century, plus a globalization that has brought in foreign competition, have made it even harder, to the point where agriculture is an endangered species in the Nashua area. This is why Ferguson and Geiger both hope that a state program called LCHIP will provide money to help preserve their respective farmland. LCHIP stands for Land and Community Heritage Investment Program.

Ferguson and Geiger are not alone. LCHIP has gotten proposals to buy agriculture rights on a host of former or current farming sites, from Woodmont Orchards in Hollis to Joppa Hill Farm on the Amherst-Bedford line. The money must generally be matched by local funds.

Competition will be fierce. LCHIP has gotten requests for about $12 million, more than twice as much as it has available. The requests include $5.2 million for 42 historic preservation projects, such as studying buildings on the former Benson’s Wild Animal Park in Hudson, and $7.5 million for 27 natural resource projects. "There’s a lot of good proposals out there," said Jan Woodbury of the Amherst Conservation Commission.

The Amherst group has put in two preservation requests: jointly with the Bedford Conservation Commission to help buy the 125-acre Joppa Hill Farm, and by itself to help buy 47 acres of apple and peach orchards that will be sold by the family of the late Jack Lindabury. Lindabury, who died in September at age 91, gave the commission first right of refusal on the land.

The LCHIP program, which has earmarked $2 million to help buy 171,000 acres of International Paper land in the North Country, has said it might try to increase the amount available to these programs at its board meeting in January. Still, with a shortfall of state funds, some people have hopes for increased federal farm support. "The problem is that New Hampshire doesn’t produce the right crops or animals to get federal agriculture subsidies," said Mike Casey, vice president of governmental affairs for the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit activist group that is pushing for major changes in the federal farm bill. One farm bill being discussed in the U.S. Senate would direct roughly $60 million over the next five years toward conservation and farm-preservation programs in New Hampshire, a huge increase. The Environmental Working Group says that over the five years of the current farm bill, $12.5 million in farm payments came to New Hampshire, or just 0.02 percent of the $70 billion spent nationwide. That does not include some nonsubsidy assistance, such as emergency help given to some apple orchards after last year’s disastrous season. The Environmental Working Group says 310 farms, 11 percent of the 2,937 registered in New Hampshire, received federal subsidies from 1996 to 2001, leaving a backlog of roughly $4.6 million in requests. Changing the federal farm bill faces big obstacles, not only from competing Senate plans but from a House-passed bill that largely maintains the current farm-subsidy system. The issue is in limbo, with debate expected to resume once legislators return to Washington after the Christmas break. If the money comes, it would be used to supplement state conservation and preservation funds.

The most visible source of those funds at the moment is LCHIP. LCHIP is an outgrowth of a 1981 state program designed to help save farms. That program’s first pay-out of $467,000 bought an easement guaranteeing that a 68-acre parcel on the Souhegan River in Milford known as the Savage Farm would be used just for agriculture "in perpetuity."

A recent attempt by the land’s current owner, Hitchiner Manufacturing Co., to allow the Savage Farm to become part of a golf course was turned down by a state panel Dec. 12, but not before the idea generated reams of criticism from farmers, area residents and environmentalists. "They said in (public hearings on the plan) that farming is not viable in this area anymore. That’s not true," said Trauger Groh of Wilton, who has been associated with the Wilton-Temple Community Farm from the beginning. Groh even co-wrote a book about it, called "Farms of Tomorrow."

Although that 110-acre farm on Abbott Hill Road in Wilton has paying members as far away as Keene and Greater Boston, it isn’t well known because it doesn’t advertise to the public.

Members pay about $140 a month to get fresh vegetables and milk produced on the farm, which includes a 35-head dairy operation. Processed foods, such as yogurt and sauerkraut, cost a little more. The problem, says Geiger, is that the farm rents its land, located near the Pine Hill School in Wilton, from a family trust. "You can’t invest in the infrastructure for the future if you don’t own the land," he said. So the farm is looking to buy 43 acres of fields and woods not far away on Abbott Hill Road, which would allow it to build its own barns, and possibly expand operations. It has established a land trust and has already built up about $90,000 in donations, but Geiger says help from LCHIP would make a big difference.

In Milford, Ferguson hopes LCHIP will buy the property’s agriculture rights from him, which would allow him to sell it to farmers at a rate they can afford. He plans to move to a retirement home in Exeter to be closer to his son. "I hate to leave the place; it’s a beautiful place," he said. "But I’m hoping the easement comes through."