Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy
Check for $50,000 Presented to the Eastern Kentucky Foothills Eco/Agri-tourism Corporation

Frankfort, KY. (June 8, 2006) –Deputy Director for the Governor’s Office of Agricultural presented a $50,000 check to Eastern Kentucky Foothills Eco/Agri-tourism Corporation in Sandy Hook, KY. These Kentucky Agricultural Development state funds will be used to help farmers develop Eco/Agri-tourism businesses on their farms.

The purpose of this project is to assist farmers and landowners in six tobacco dependent counties to create an Eco/Agri-tourism business on their farm. The six counties including Wolfe, Menifee, Morgan, Elliott, Carter, and Greenup are collaborating to make a continuous agri-tourism trail from the Red River Gorge to the Ohio River.

The new business will help replace the family income lost with the tobacco buy-out.  Small family farmers of this region, through partnering with civic and governmental agencies, will establish innovative alternatives for income generation based on the natural resource assets of their farms and the region. 

Brian Furnish, Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy, stated, “This project will provide a great opportunity for farmers to diversify by creating an Eco/Agri-tourism business on their farm.”

The Kentucky Legislature continues to make great strides toward lessening Kentucky’s dependence on tobacco production while revitalizing the farm economy by investing 50% of Kentucky’s Master Settlement Agreement into the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund.  To date Kentucky has invested over $205 million to an array of county, regional and state projects designed to increase net farm income and create sustainable new farm-based business enterprises.  This project represents just one of the over 2,468 projects that have been funded through the Agricultural Development Fund, since the inception of the program in January 2001.

For more information on this project contact Larry Brown with East KY Foothills Eco-Agri-tourism Corporation at (606) 768-8190. To learn more about cost-share grant and loan programs available though the Agricultural Development Fund contact the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy at (502) 564-4627 or visit our website at http://agpolicy.ky.gov.