Regional Development Organizations Promote Rural Entrepreneurship

Aliceann Wolhbruck, Executive Director, NADO Research Foundation

“Rural policy in the 21st century
must center on enhancing the
competitiveness of places.”

— Stanley Johnson, Vice Provost
for Extension, Iowa State University

One of the most important pieces of federal legislation affecting rural America is the next farm bill. Yet, as the cover article points out, a relatively small amount of the total funds authorized will focus on the need for jobs and community infrastructure in rural cities, counties and towns. While the farm bill is important to rural America, other federal, state and local legislation and programs often provide more assistance to rural places to create and sustain employment.

As Stanley Johnson points out in an article in the July 2001 Main Street Economist, “Evidence continues to mount that rural America needs a new policy approach. Many rural areas continue to fall behind urban areas even after a period of unprecedented growth in the national economy. Thus, more and more analysts are concluding that current policy—one that focuses on building sectors and not communities—limits the ability to build effective partnerships among communities and businesses.”

As the chart on page 3 illustrates, no one industry dominates the rural economy. According to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), due to farm consolidation and technology advances, employment on farms in nonmetro counties diminished by almost 667,000 jobs (26.9 percent) from 1975 to 1996. ERS’s Fred Gale writes, “The ability of the rural economy to shake off severe problems in the agricultural sector is a reminder that agriculture is no longer the primary economic engine of rural America. The non-agricultural economy in rural America has grown steadily, outpacing growth in agriculture, so that agriculture’s relative importance as a source of jobs and income has declined. Nonfarm employment is projected to grow 14 percent between 1998 and 2008. There is enough activity in rural America to employ and provide economic support for over one-fifth of the nation’s population, but farming supports only about two to three percent.”

As the nation comes together to face the unknown economic challenges resulting from the September 11 attacks on the United States, it is essential that the important role played by rural people and places be part of the nation’s long-range strategic thinking about sustainability and growth. Regional development organizations serving small metropolitan and rural America must continue to play a critical role in providing a strategic framework for rural places to help contribute to our nation’s economy.

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