Pubdate: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 Source: Daily Independent, The (KY) Copyright: 2001 The Daily Independent, Inc. Contact: http://www.dailyindependent.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1573 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp) More Help Needed AREA FARMERS WAY AHEAD OF STATE PLAN IN SEEKING NEW CROPS TO REPLACE TOBACCO If area farmers are going to thrive in a post-tobacco economy, they are going to need more help from the state. And a lot more vision. Frankly, the long-awaited report from the governor's Office of Agricultural Policy is a disappointment. While the report recognizes that Kentucky farmers need to kick the tobacco habit and develop markets for new farm products, it says little about just what role the state should play in developing those markets. As far as diversification is concerned, area farmers already are doing more and exhibiting more vision that the plan projects for this part of Kentucky. The plan says Eastern Kentucky should focus on timber, take a forest inventory, recruit high-end furniture makers, and foster ginseng, goldenseal, herbs and mushrooms. Well, logging already is a growing industry in this region, and state economic development officials have been talking about recruiting furniture makers and other wood-product industries for decades, so far with little success. Ginseng has never been successfully grown commercially, and if it were, the bottom would soon fall out of the market. One reason that it is so lucrative a product is because it is so rare. As evidenced by The Independent's series on farming by John Flavell and Jerry Pennington, area farmers are way ahead of the state plan in experimenting with new products. Lawrence County farmer Roy Holbrook has raised cantaloupes, pumpkins, watermelons, and cabbage in an attempt to make money outside of tobacco, with mixed results. Dean and Grace Ramey have built two greenhouses on their Carter County farm. Mason County farmers George and Mary Jones have established Bluegrass Meat Goats. They buy goats from farmers in Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas and ship them to slaughterhouses in the Northeast, where there is a growing ethnic market for goat meat. Holbrook also believes grapes may be in the future for Northeastern Kentucky farmers. So does Boyd County Extension Agent Lyndall Harned. Some experts believe farmers could net about $2,000 an acre from a successful vineyard. And grapes are particularly well suited for this region's hilly terrain. In short, area farmers know they can no longer depend on tobacco as a steady source of income, and they are looking to establish niche markets for products well suited for this region. One problem is that those in Frankfort do not view this region as an agricultural area. That's evidenced by the fact that Northeastern Kentucky was completely shut out from the $11 million the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board awarded to 59 projects that promote agricultural diversification. Instead, the bulk of that money went to projects in Central and Western Kentucky. While this region certainly has smaller and fewer farms than Central and Western Kentucky, agriculture adds much more to the area's economy than most people realize. And the future of farming in this region is not limited to just chopping down trees or combing the hills for ginseng. If fruit and vegetable farming is going to thrive in this region, it is going to take more than just adding more farmer's markets where those products can be sold from the backs of trucks. If area farmers are to succeed in switching to cattle, they need somewhere closer than Kansas or Oklahoma to sell their animals. There is untapped potential here. The Wurtland riverport developed by Combined Terminals could be an excellent shipping spot for farm products. Railroads could transport more than just coal to distant states. Gov. Paul Patton has said he envisions the state spending some $60 million a year to help farmers diversify and develop new markets. That money will come from the $3.65 billion Kentucky is getting from cigarette companies as its share of an historic settlement to a series of lawsuits filed by states. In fact, the Kentucky General Assembly requested the recent study to help it decide just how to spend that money. It just didn't get much help from that study. Well, some of that money needs to be spent in this region. Sure, we have fewer full-time farmers than other parts of the state, and our hilly terrain limits what farmers can raise, but the importance of area agriculture should not be ignored. Everyone realizes marketing and market development are the key to agricultural diversification in Kentucky. It's just that farmers need more than a vague plan to develop those markets. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth