Pilot program covers 23 more counties in state

USDA expands farmer help

Monday, February 3, 2014

A U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative that began four years ago as a pilot program in 25 Arkansas counties has expanded into 23 more counties, department officials announced.

The agency developed the StrikeForce Initiative in 2010 to help farmers in impoverished areas obtain farm loans, conservation programs and technical assistance, said Charlie Williams, a StrikeForce coordinator in Pine Bluff.

“We’re helping put people in place to do what they already want to do,” he said.

StrikeForce “is put in prime land,” Williams said, referring to a majority of the counties involved that are in the rich, fertile alluvial land of eastern Arkansas. “This is our nugget.”

Along with Arkansas, the pilot program began in Georgia and Mississippi.

In 2012, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada were added. Last year, Strike-Force was implemented in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

On Thursday, the Agriculture Department announced the 23 Arkansas counties added to the initiative. They are Ashley, Clay, Conway, Craighead, Crittenden, Franklin, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jefferson, Johnson, Lincoln, Madison, Miller, Montgomery, Poinsett, Polk, Scott, Sebastian, Sharp, Stone, Union and Van Buren.

In 2010, the initial counties were Arkansas, Bradley, Chicot, Clark, Columbia, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Hempstead, Howard, Jackson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lee, Mississippi, Monroe, Nevada, Newton, Ouachita, Phillips, Randolph, Searcy, Sevier,St. Francis and Woodruff counties.

Since its inception, Strike-Force has helped oversee $9.7 billion in investments in rural farms, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release. In fiscal 2013, the Farm Service Agency provided nearly $9.3 million to fund microloans in Strike-Force areas, he said. Nearly 85 percent of the loans were provided to socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers.

“Since its inception, the StrikeForce initiative has helped our agency direct additional resources to better serve producers in persistent poverty counties and accelerate implementation of conservation practices on their land,” Natural Resources Conservation Service state conservationist Mike Sullivan of Little Rock said in a news release.

Through the StrikeForce program, the state conservation service offered morethan $2.8 million in fiscal 2013 through Environmental Quality Incentive Programs that helped fund irrigation water systems and build “high tunnels,” or greenhouses that allow farmers to extend growing seasons.

Williams said farmers in eastern Arkansas are focusing on producing foods for school-lunch programs. Students in the Forrest City School District are served sweet potatoes grown locally, he said.

“We’re putting systems into place,” Williams said. “We’re developing community gardens, farmers markets and alternative marketing systems.”

He said farmers in south Arkansas are growing Southern peas to be sold in produce sections in Wal-Mart stores, for example.

“We’re dealing with the stigma of big farms,” Williams said. “One farmer can’t do it. But if we form partnerships, we can.

“The addition of the new counties [in Arkansas] is the result of our accomplishments.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/03/2014