Purpose: Why do farmers not take better care of their soils? This article aims to give insight into how farmers look at soil quality management. Design/methodology/approach: It analyses diverse land management practices and visions on soils and soil quality of ten agroecological and 14 conventional smallholder farmers in Araponga, Minas Gerais,…

Given increasing political and financial commitments to wildfire preparedness, risk policy demands that risk identification, assessment, and mitigation activities are balanced among diverse resident groups. Essential for this is the understanding of residents' perceptions of wildfire risks. This study compares wildfire-risk perceptions of…

In current policy discourse, rural decline is often described as an inevitable process associated with such broader structural trends as globalization and urbanization. The purpose of this paper is to challenge the supposed inevitability of rural decline in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada. We argue that rural decline in northern BC has been…

Reviews the history of Canadian rural development, comparing Canadian rural policy with U.S. rural policy. Canada's programs, although sharing some features with U.S. programs, are often delivered in a manner that emphasizes local planning and encourages rural areas to make a long-term commitment to integrating programs into a broader development…

Analyzes the distribution of 1985 federal expenditures among U.S. counties by expenditure function and object and by county type (metro/nonmetro and nonmetro economic base). Concludes that federal spending in nonmetro areas focuses on income redistribution and does not promote economic development. (SV)

To determine degree of local support for industrialization as a means of rural economic development, leaders and influentials in three South Carolina counties were interviewed in 1977. Each was asked to define "development" and to list and rank three aspects of his county he especially liked and its most important needs or problems.…

Communities with a flexible, open leadership structure may weather energy booms better than communities with old-guard leadership cliques, according to a study of community governance in two small Texas towns. Although similar in location, ethnic composition, population, access to transportation, economic base, and importance in the county,…

The publication describes the process which created the Rural Virginia Development Foundation and the potential contribution it holds for the agricultural sector of Virginia's economy and for the state's rural communities. Following an introduction, Part II provides background, operating assumptions, and principal justification for the Foundation;…

Concerned with the application of science and technology to agriculture, this book is intended to be used as a reference for rural education groups and as a guide for teachers in an attempt to formulate a new approach to teaching rural economics by integrating it into the overall analysis of social and economic development. The book is divided…

In the late 1970s both jobs and population were growing more rapidly outside metropolitan areas. As a group, nonmetropolitan counties not adjacent to a metropolitan area experienced a faster rate of employment growth than metropolitan areas between 1975-79. Even in rural counties (no urban place of 2,500 or more) not adjacent to a metropolitan…

This paper is concerned with the problem of social inequalities and economic development in rural communities. Two ethnically different communities were chosen in the most southern state of Brazil: Garibaldi, of descendants from Italian immigrants, and Candelaria, of descendants from German immigrants. The data were gathered through application of…

Arguing that consultative and authoritative frameworks for rural development programs allow those in a superior position to define development priorities and to determine when and to what extent those in subordinate positions can participate, this paper outlines the need for participative-group management of such projects. The paper notes that…

The report of a United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Expert Group meeting, involving 13 experts from 10 countries, discusses planning national efforts to promote youth's role in development. Current systems and indicators used to assess the situation of rural and urban youth and their contribution to…

The study described the patterns of government outlay to U.S. metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas for 86% of the $499 billion of federal outlays and loan guarantees made in fiscal 1978 to individual counties in the 50 states. Between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas there were considerable variations in outlays to programs in seven…

Analyzing 1975 Federal Outlays for 275 programs in terms of rural development and government services, this 7th annual report to the Congress pursuant to Title IX, Section 901 (e) of the Agricultural Act of 1970 includes tabular and narrative data pertaining to: metropolitan and nonmetropolitan distribution; regional distribution (census regions);…