Farm diversification has become a must to compete in the ever changing market place of agriculture. Owsley County Cooperative Extension Service conducted a workshop to help farmers diversify their operations and find resources to assist in developing infrastructure at their operations. Owsley County Cooperative Extension, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Kentucky Sate Small Farm Program worked with farmers to obtain High Tunnels and other Projects that would help them to Diversify. 

As result of these efforts nineteen farmers received High tunnels, and ten farmers received grants from the small farm program for projects ranging from building cooling systems for their produce to setting up a portable grist mill and sorghum mill. The high tunnels range from $10,000.00 to $16,000.00 each and the small farm grants were $5,000.00 each for a minimum total of more than $240,000.00 at no cost to the farmers.

 Educational programs were conducted to assist in each of these area’s to help them either improve their operation or to expand and diversify. As result of these improvements all producers have reported positive outcomes such as, eight have doubled their profit margin by extending the season by planting earlier in the High Tunnels, four reported that being able to have cold storage on the farm has allowed them to at least double their profits by extending the life of the produce. Four individuals are new farmers and have been very successful even during the Global Pandemic.