The importance of Kentucky agriculture extends well beyond the farm. The total economic impact of agriculture production, inputs, processing, and manufacturing is nearly $46.3 billion and represents 263,000 jobs in Kentucky, based on a recent analysis by the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.

Kentucky is one of a growing number of southern states where an emerging agbioscience industry is proving to be a boon to their economies, according to a recent survey conducted by Battelle, the world’s largest independent research and development organization. Agbioscience encompasses a broad continuum of development, production, and value-added use of plants and animals for food, health, fuel, and industrial applications.

Historically, employment associated with Kentucky agriculture has been limited to production agriculture, said Alison Davis, PhD, agricultural economist and director for the college’s Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky. This sector’s value in Kentucky is $6.1 billion and includes cash receipts from commodities as well as revenues from additional sources of farm income, such as custom work, machinery hire, and farm rental values. Cash receipts totaled nearly $5 billion, including $2 billion in agricultural exports in 2011. The largest agricultural export originating from Kentucky is soybeans, followed by tobacco and corn.

It’s important, however, to recognize food and fiber processing and manufacturing that value-added enterprises represent beyond the farm gate