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USDA Distributes $6.1 Million for Rural Economic Development
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced 51 grant recipients will share $6.1 million for rural economic development. Funding for the projects comes from the USDA's Rural Business Opportunity Grants Rural Development and Rural Business Enterprise Grant programs.
The 2002 awards are distributed across 24 states: Arizona - $265,221; California - $450,000; Florida - $399,600; Georgia - $183,279; Illinois - $874,500; Kentucky - $398,000; Louisiana - $50,000; Maine - $445,000; Mississippi - $372,923; Missouri - $319,999; Montana - $63,260; Nebraska - $50,000; New Mexico - $200,960; New York - $250,000; North Carolina - $300,000; North Dakota - $236,290; Oklahoma - $211,070; Oregon - $250,000; South Carolina - $163,450; South Dakota - $100,000; Tennessee - $288,247; Utah - $46,545; Washington - $149,271; and West Virginia - $92,930.
While traditional economic development and infrastructure improvements still dominate the slate of awards, nearly half of the 51 grants will support creation of business incubators, entrepreneurship programs, revolving loan funds for emerging businesses, cluster analyses and technology related manufacturing projects. A complete list of the individual grant recipients can be found at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rd/newsroom/2002/rbogrbeglist.html