Agriculture in the Appalachian Region: 1965-2000
Dale Colyer
West Virginia University
The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was established in 1965, an era when both
the area and its agricultural sector were characterized by persistent poverty and lagging economies.
Coltrane and Baum (1965) analyzed Appalachia’s agriculture of the area and concluded that
“agricultural development has not occurred on a wide scale...” (p. viii). Characteristics of the area’s
agriculture included small sizes of farms, low incomes, low percentages of land in farms, a lack of
cropland-especially high quality land, high rates of off-farm work, and a concentration on livestock
production. They found that only 31 percent of the nonfederal land in the region was suitable for
crop production, compared to 44 percent for the U.S. The agricultural situation was derived from
an earlier era of relative isolation and subsistence farming and was compounded by a rough terrain
that hinders the development of large scale mechanized farming operations.
Although having a comparable growth rate to that of the U.S., Appalachian agricultural
operations have remained relatively small with a 1997 average farm size of 152 acres compared with
the U.S. average of 487 acres (USDA 1999). The area also remains more dependent on animal
agriculture with 75 percent of its income dependent on livestock compared to 50 percent for the U.S.
While the region’s agricultural sector plays a less significant role in its economy than in the past, it
is still an important source of income and other benefits for a large number of households, as well
as providing clients for agribusiness and other firms that service the sector and amenities for many
urban area residents. Furthermore, agriculture continues to be important in the cultural and social
institutions of the region.
Despite its importance, relatively little attention has been given to the sector in recent
economic and other analyses of the Appalachian Region. No information about agriculture appears
on the ARC website and there have been no articles on agriculture in recent issues of the Journal of
Appalachian Studies (JAS 2000). Isserman (1996a, 1996b), Rogers and Cushing (1996), Lewis and
Billings (1997), and Wood and Bischak (2000) reviewed the socioeconomic progress, culture and
poverty in Appalachia with analyses of changes in the region over a thirty-year period. These studies
indicate substantial progress, but agriculture was not included in the analyses. This paper helps to
remedy that situation by analyzing the region’s agriculture, examining and evaluating changes during
the existence of the ARC. Agriculture in the region is compared with that of other regions and the
United States and implications are developed for the future of agriculture and agricultural research
needs in the region.
The Appalachian Region
According to Coltrane and Baum (1965), 55.7 percent of Appalachia’s land area is not
suitable for agricultural production, while another 13.5 percent has very limited potential. Even
within the remaining 30.8 percent, a large share is not suitable for intensive crop production. Thus,
forage and livestock production are appropriate for much of the area’s limited land resources