The Kentucky Agricultural Council works on behalf of Kentucky’s agricultural community and is facilitating discussion to develop the next Strategic Roadmap for Kentucky Agriculture: 2025-2030, which will be released this November. KAC membership, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, and Kentucky State University have invested in the effort.
Michele Payn of Cause Matters, Corp., has been facilitating the current process with assistance from Dr. Kristie Guffey of Murray State. From December to early February, they engaged more than 120 stakeholders to discover what was missing for Kentucky agriculture and how it would stand out in the next ten years.
Nine themes emerged from the first focus groups, and working groups of experts, farmers, and agrifood leaders are meeting to develop measurable and actionable tactics for each:
- Help protect farm transitions and sustain Kentucky farmlands.
- Prioritize workforce development.
- Engage agriculture in Kentucky’s economic development discussions.
- Foster more supply chain coordination to improve market access.
- Continue diversification and innovation across farm, food, fuel, & fiber.
- Develop agriculture’s partnerships in the food and health space.
- Create more value-added markets across the Commonwealth.
- Grow collaboration, coordination, and communications within Kentucky agriculture.
- Build understanding around farm and food amongst all Kentuckians.
Working group discussions will continue through May. Anyone interested in participating in the groups or reviewing and responding to the generated ideas should contact KAC executive secretary Jennifer Elwell at kyagcouncil@gmail.com. Follow the QR code link at left to learn more about the process.
Established in the late 1970s, the Kentucky Agricultural Council is a collaborative group of organizations working to promote, educate, and grow agriculture in the Commonwealth.
In 2006, the Kentucky Agricultural Council responded to Governor Ernie Fletcher’s call and assumed a leadership role in planning to help increase net farm income and improve the quality of life in rural Kentucky. This resulted in the publication of A Pathway for Kentucky's Agriculture and its Rural Communities: 2007 to 2012 Strategic Plan. A second plan followed for 2013-2018: Connecting Strategies to Better Kentucky’s Agricultural Economy and Rural Communities.
