KSU Small Farm Program provides educational and financial resources to small, limited-resource, minority producers

K entucky State University's Cooperative Extension Program works with individuals, farm families, and communities with limited resources to help them use information, increase incomes, and aspire to a better future.

Dr. Marion Simon and Mr. Louie Rivers Jr. head up the Kentucky State University Small, Limited-Resource, Minority Farmer Program, which is committed to solving problems faced by those who have limited social and economic resources. The economic impact of the Small Farm outreach has averaged over $3.75 million annually in increased producer incomes, $1 million in annual producer savings, and local multiplier effects are projected to be $9 million annually.

With the help of her team, Dr. Simon, who is the 2015 recipient of the Kentucky Association of State Extension Professionals' M.D. Whitaker Award of Excellence and the national Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Excellence in Extension 1890 Award, works to secure external funding to enhance program delivery, utilizes media and educational meetings to provide education and outreach to limited-resource farmers, professionals, and paraprofessionals, and develops and delivers programing in farm management, production, food safety, local foods, and marketing.

Mr. Louie Rivers, director of county operations and recipient of the 2015 University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment Thomas Poe Cooper Distinguished Farm Leadership Award, meets with Kentucky's county extension councils to broaden KSU's extension efforts into new areas of Kentucky. Some of these county initiatives include the Local Foods Initiative, which utilizes the mobile poultry processing unit in Bath, Hart, Shelby, Kenton, Bourbon, Clark, Washington, Hardin, Scott, and Jackson counties. Additional local food initiatives include production use of black plastic, high tunnels, direct marketing of vegetables, and honeybee training and honey processing.

which utilizes the mobile poultry processing unit in Bath, Hart, Shelby, Kenton, Bourbon, Clark, Washington, Hardin, Scott, and Jackson counties. Additional local food initiatives include production use of black plastic, high tunnels, direct marketing of vegetables, and honeybee training and honey processing.

Additionally, KSU Extension’s AgrAbility program utilizes assistive technologies to make farming operations feasible for farmers with disabilities and to improve their qualities of life. Farmers in Meade, Franklin, and Scott counties have participated in this program. More than 200 farmers across Kentucky have participated in health fairs and have learned technologies to assist them with arthritis and their mobility.

The Small Farm Program team includes: