While variations were great among regions, he said that national averages indicated that farmland prices rose 2.5 percent in 1987 and 5.8 percent last year, after falling for five years.

According to The Financial Times in 2008, farmland prices in France were euro 6,000 per hectare ($2,430 per acre; Rs.

The farmland prices in the United States varied between different parts of the country, ranging between $480 per acre to $4,690 per acre.

The lower rates, in turn, would make investments in farm assets more attractive and slow the current decline in farmland prices.

The increase in farmland prices was inevitable, said Louisa Hargrave, now a wine consultant and writer living in Jamesport.

A13 An investor's dream of pig-farming has come true, helping to generate a rally in Midwestern farmland prices.

There have also been isolated episodes of falling prices, including the sharp drop in oil prices and the steep decline in farmland prices in the mid-1980's.

The scene was set in 1982-87, as farmland prices tumbled in the worst recession agriculture had faced in 50 years.

The recovery in farmland prices has by no means been even.

Over the past two years that vision has transformed him into one of the most aggressive of the investors whose deals are generating a rally in long-depressed farmland prices.