Agricultural diversification is the practice of expanding farm activities beyond traditional crops or livestock.
Brandon Reed, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Agricultural Policy, said increasingly, the focus has been on investing money into meat processing facilities throughout the state, especially after the pandemic years, when many farmers faced hurdles traveling long distances to find processors. Reed stressed the state hopes to ease the burden on producers.
"Last month the Kentucky Community and Technical College System partnered with us to approve a $63,200 in state funds to develop and implement a comprehensive certification program for meat processing," Reed noted.
Kentucky State University will receive more than $1 million to fund a program aimed at helping farmers across the state through mini-grants. The University of Kentucky Research Foundation also received funds for its Viticulture and Enology Extension Program.
Reed pointed out projects such as agro-tourism or renewable energy production can stabilize revenue streams and help reduce risk. He added the Commonwealth’s move away from tobacco production over the past decades has made crop diversification more critical.
"That money is used to diversify individuals’ crops so that they can bring additional income, different income, to replace the tobacco income that they once had," Reed underscored.
According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, diversification can also help reduce erosion and preserve soil quality.
