Ag investments are buffer against economic uncertainty

 

 

Commissioner Richie Farmer

 

Kentucky farmers outdid themselves this year by setting a record with $4.7 billion in farm cash receipts.

 

They managed this feat in a year of tremendous economic ups and downs, drought and outrageous input costs.

 

I am constantly amazed but never surprised by Kentucky’s farmers. Just since I’ve been agriculture commissioner, they have dealt with the end of the tobacco quota and price support program, a late-season freeze in April 2007, and two consecutive summers of drought and have emerged stronger than ever.

 

As we look ahead, perhaps the greatest challenges are yet to come. The University of Kentucky predicts that farm cash receipts will decrease slightly in 2009. Already, crop prices have plummeted since their all-time highs of last summer; prices for horses and cattle are down, too. Experts say the current economic downturn has yet to hit bottom.

 

Farmers are better positioned than most people to weather the economic storm, Kentucky farmers in particular. Farmers, of course, provide products that are essential to life. Here in Kentucky, our agriculture industry is far more diversified than it used to be as we have reduced our dependence on tobacco income.

 

Since 2001 Kentucky has invested more than $250 million of master tobacco settlement funds into agriculture, and those investments are making a difference. A UK study found that $86 million invested in individual projects from 2001-2007 returned $1.87 for every $1 invested and impacted 50,000 Kentucky tobacco farmers. The county-level model programs have enabled farmers to improve their forages, beef cattle genetics and livestock handling capabilities.

 

One of the most successful investments has been the Kentucky Proud program. That same study found that investments in Kentucky Proud generated $4.70 for every $1 invested. The researchers who compiled the report said: “The Kentucky Proud state branding program is among the most successful in the nation.”

 

In the weeks to come, this newsletter will feature projects that have made a difference to farmers, business people, schools and entire communities. You will see why, in these economically uncertain times, it is more important than ever that Kentucky maintain its commitment of half the state’s share of tobacco settlement funds to our agriculture industry.