Success StoryCounty Agricultural Development Council Continues Important Work Even in Challenging Times



County Agricultural Development Council Continues Important Work Even in Challenging Times

Author: Anthony Tackett

Planning Unit: Bourbon County CES

Major Program: Farm Management, Economics and Policy

Plan of Work: Management, Production & Marketing of Agriculture Products

Outcome: Intermediate Outcome

During the past year the Bourbon County Extension Service has worked extensively with the state level Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy, and our local County Agricultural Development Council in supporting innovative projects that help increase local farm income.  During a normal year acting as liaison and facilitator between these groups takes significant time and coordination.  This past year the ongoing pandemic and a vacant staff point of contact position has made this even more challenging.  Despite these factors the Bourbon County Extension Office has worked effectively with these groups in carrying out local projects.  We worked with the existing group in completely revising the County’s 5-year comprehensive plan.  After the plan was completed, we worked with local leadership in replacing all but 2 of the council’s existing membership due to new member term rotation guidelines.  After new council membership was in place a orientation meeting was coordinated between the local council and the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy to ensure the new council members understood their roles on the overall council.  The Extension Service then set about organizing the first ever virtual annual program investment area county meeting to help local producers understand the upcoming application process and guideline changes.  Over 70 local producers took park in this online process which is almost %100 of historic in-person participation levels.  In order to accommodate producers who were unable to participate online and still comply with current social distancing guidelines, we held numerous individual ‘mini orientations’ to help everyone understand the current year application investment areas and process.   The Extension Office successfully helped coordinate the submission and review of dozens of local agriculture investment projects.  These projects represent tens of thousands of dollars invested in local agriculture improvement activities.  In order to comply with ongoing social distancing guidelines, the Extension Office has designed a hybrid meeting process to accommodate both in person and online participation of County Agricultural Development Council members in meetings.  All of the examples above are just a few of the ways  the Bourbon County Extension Office continues to support important work in our agriculture community even in challenging times.  






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