Governor Steve Beshear announced on March 13 that $8.15 million in agricultural development funds will be set aside to help farmers recover from the devastation caused by the 2007 late spring freeze and extensive drought experienced across the state during the summer and fall.
The Kentucky Agricultural Relief Effort (KARE) initiative will utilize county and state agriculture funds to provide cost-share assistance to farmers to make improvements and investments in water and forage infrastructure on the farm to lessen the impact of future weather problems.
“Farmers need help developing alternative water sources that will head off the impacts of future droughts, assistance with renovating and reestablishing pastures and hay fields, along with equipment and facilities that will help improve forage quality,” explained Beshear.
The governor went on to explain that the KARE program is the formalization of the commitment made by the Agricultural Development Board at their February meeting to utilize unexpected tobacco settlement funds coming to the state in fiscal year 2008 to provide relief assistance to Kentucky farmers.
When asked why only $8.15 million of the $11.7 million committed by the board was being invested in the KARE program, Roger Thomas, the executive director of the Governor’s Office of Ag Policy, said that much had changed since the February meeting.
“Since the meeting, we became aware of the fact that some funds were going to be taken out of Ag Development to fund additional water and sewer lines and to fund debt service for at least one year for the Ag Heritage Center,” said Thomas. “I feel comfortable we have picked an appropriate amount to start this program, and I am fully committed to working with KDA, the division of conservation and other folks in hopefully taking a next step in developing a long-range plan to deal with water retention.”
Of the $8.15 million set aside for the KARE program, $4.1 million will go to counties allocated using the HB 611 formula, $2.05 million will be state funds to be matched 50-to-1 with county funds, and the final $2 million will go to a statewide pool.
Counties may apply for funding from the statewide pool after they have committed all of their county tobacco settlement money. Funds from the $2 million pool will be allocated based on a formula measuring the agricultural impact of last summer’s drought.
Representative Don Paisley, who had pre-filed a bill last fall that would use up to $20 million in Ag Development Funds to help farmers recover, said that the KARE program was a step in the right direction toward addressing the issues facing farmers.
“At this current time, this is the best program we could put together to help farmers,” said Paisley. “I’m very proud to have worked with Roger Thomas and the governor to get this done.”