Thursday, Jan 31 2013 1:43PM

Public and private collaboration may help build up rural community development initiatives.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager delivered a keynote address at the Harvesting Clean Energy conference in Oregon, and highlighted the potential of public and private collaborations to further rural economic community development goals. 

Tonsager met with business, technology, education, agriculture, finance and state government representatives to discuss collaborative deals, agreements and other team-related topics that may help build up rural communities. He noted that these partnerships may help advance job growth, build infrastructure, develop new energy sources and provide more public facilities, such as access to clean water system services. 

"Our mission is to help create jobs in rural America," said Tonsager. "We are looking for creativity, especially as it relates to putting capital together for rural areas so that we can extend our resources further in a thoughtful, sensible way."

Although most funding for rural community development projects is made available through local, state or federal government organizations, assistance and funding to rural areas can be found in other entities, such as local companies and nonprofit organizations. Funding from these resources may become more necessary in the future as lawmakers seek to make budget cuts that may impact affordable housing assistance, public works and development project funding for rural locations. 

For more information, check out this resource: The U.S. Department of Agriculture