Many agricultural-based communities in the Great Plains region of North America face declining rural populations and shrinking market size to levels eventually insufficient to maintain their functions. In response, rural communities often pursue a variety of business recruitment and retention...

Many state legislatures grant local governments the authority to enact sales taxes on retail sales transactions that occur within local jurisdictions. Local government reliance on these local option sales tax (LOST) revenues is increasing. In many states, including Oklahoma, municipal...

As its economy struggled during the last decade, Michigan became the only state to lose population between the 2000 and 2010 Censuses. Michigan’s problems were well known and communities in other states sought to attract residents from Michigan. This paper describes the efforts of one...

Focusing on the narrower concept of a knowledge-economy-based growth strategy, this paper explores whether a strong link between a college-educated population and a region’s economic performance was an important ingredient in the growth experience of the Sunbelt during the 1990s. The...

A Finnish-based forest products company recently purchased the paper mill in a small community in northeastern Wisconsin (pop. 1,800). The 362 responses to a mailed survey demonstrated the community’s perception that their future is uncertain. Quantitative and qualitative analyses...

In Colorado, agritourism shows the potential to benefit agricultural producers and rural communities by generating additional income from consumers who are willing to pay for rural and agriculturally related experiences. This study uses a survey of Colorado agritourists to identify five distinct...

This study examined the effect of access to micro-credit on poverty status of rural households in Obafemi-Owode LGA in Ogun state, employing data collected from 94 randomly selected households in the study area. Data were analysed with the aid of FGT poverty index and the Logit regression model....

Land degradation in south eastern part of Nigeria is becoming widespread because population pressure is increasing, fallow land are unavailable for agricultural activities and even marginal lands are being lost to developmental projects. The problem of land degradation emanated from increase...

The provision of safe drinking water has been a major concern of government over the decades and boreholes have been drilled in many rural areas in Nigeria. Despite this, the proportion of Nigerians in rural areas with access to safe drinking water is about 50%. This paper evaluates...

China's food processing sector has arrived at a critical stage and the challenges for the food industry including undergoing relevant structural adjustments are well documented (OECD 2000). The Chinese domestic economy continues to boom and living standards of people continue to improve. Food...