HONESDALE, PA — The Wayne County Agricultural Development Plan, created by Agricultural and Community Development Services LLC, is complete and available online (www.bit.ly/WaynePAAgPlan). The plan says the county’s agricultural sector is expected to grow in the coming decades, fueled by a “renewed interest in agriculture among youthful entrepreneurs.”

 An executive summary of the plan says that Wayne has several advantages over other rural agricultural counties in northeastern Pennsylvania and Central New York. One is that the population and economy are relatively stable, and, thanks to a healthy tourism sector, the population of the county in the summer nearly doubles.  

 Still, there are challenges to the agricultural sector, including the continued decline of dairy farms and the fact the farms in the county operate with “very low profit margins,” while expenses have been rising.

The summary lists five goals the county should concentrate on to help ensure the success of the agriculture sector: 
• Develop an entrepreneurial culture
• Improve access to capital resources
• Create an innovative and adaptive future workforce
• Modernize infrastructure to encourage greater private investment
• Lead regional target industry development projects

The executive summary lays out the agricultural opportunities further. “The five industries that present current opportunities are online grocery, specialty dairy products, meat and poultry products, wood products and craft beverages.”

The plan says some immediate projects include, “a feasibility study for a dairy processing facility, a business plan for a financing authority focused on entrepreneurs, and work at the Wayne Memorial Hospital and Geisinger Health System to develop a food-as-medicine program.”