FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has stated that he will be utilizing more than $5.9 million from tobacco settlement funds to help the state’s farmers protect their water quality and prevent soil erosion.

Beshear, along with Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman, said that the Kentucky Soil and Water Conservation Commission has selected 592 Kentucky farm projects in 86 counties to receive the funds.

Funds for the watering facilities will mostly include pipeline and automatic waterers where the installation will facilitate rotational grazing or remove animals from drinking in surface waters. The water source is often treated water from the local municipal water treatment plant but may also be fed by a pond or rooftop capture.

The funds not allocated specifically for water facilities will go directly to funding projects on the farms which prevent soil erosion or protect water quality such as fencing, forestry management plans, cover crops and grade control structures.

“We need to be doing all that we can to support our local farmers who have always been there to support us and our economy,” Beshear said. “These projects help their efforts to improve soil and water quality and will help keep farms productive.”

The commission has obligated more than $170 million in state cost share funding in the past 27 years. Funds are distributed with the assistance of the 121 soil and water conservation districts across the Bluegrass State.

“I have seen many of our farmers make great use of cost share money to improve their farms while conserving soils and improving water quality,” said Danny Shipley, Allen County farmer and chairman of the commission. “Without the help to learn best management practices and a boost to jump-start the implementation of these practices, many would be unable to improve their farm conservation measures.”

Todd Clark, an Agriculture Water Quality Authority member and a Fayette County farmer who has benefited from the program, agreed. “Winter feeding is one of the toughest times of the year to manage on a Kentucky beef cattle farm. State cost share was a huge help both financially and in planning a winter-feeding area for us.”

A 2019 study by researchers from the European Union Joint Research Centre estimating economic losses from soil erosion, found $8 billion is lost annually from global GDP. Worldwide, food production is reduced by 33.7 million tons of food.

According to a 2020 study released by the Union of Concerned Scientists, if soil continues to erode at current rates, U.S. farmers could lose a ½-inch of topsoil by 2035 – more than eight times the amount of topsoil lost during the Dust Bowl. They could lose nearly three inches by 2100. Given that it takes a century or more for an inch of soil to form naturally, the nation will lose the equivalent of at least 300 years’ worth of soil by 2100 if today’s trends prevail.