FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 18, 2002
Contact: Kara Keeton, Communications Director
Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy
404 Ann Street, Frankfort
(502) 564-4627

State Agricultural Development Board Delivers $80,000 for Pendleton County Diversification Programs

The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, chaired by Governor Paul Patton, delivered a check in the amount of $80,000.00 in support of Diversification Programs in Pendleton County. Local program organizers submitted requests for the Model Agricultural Diversification and Goat Diversification programs to the Pendleton County Agricultural Development Council to help area farmers improve diversify their farm operations through alternative commodity and goat production.

The programs provide a 50% cost-share to Pendleton County farmers seeking to raise goats, or participate in the agricultural diversification program. The goat diversification program is designed to assist in improving the genetic base of Kentucky's goat herds, promoting animal health, encouraging science-based solutions to herd management and providing marketing opportunities for local livestock producers.

Kentucky has made a historic effort to diversify away from 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 $98 million to an array of county, regional, and state projects designed to increase net farm income and create sustainable new farm-based business enterprises. The Pendleton County Diversification Programs represent just two of the over 800 projects that have been funded through Agricultural Development Fund, since the inception of the program in January 2001.

For more information regarding this project, contact Will Browning at (859) 654-3395 or the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy at (502) 564-4627.

- 30 -