Interviews with 725 North Carolina farm operators revealed: the extent of economic, social, and emotional stresses on farm families; perceptions of the future of agriculture; the degree of reliance on off-farm income; financial management practices; and programs needed from the Agricultural Extension Service. Almost 66% viewed their future in…

With Cooperative Extension Service (CES) help in a wide range of economic development activities rural America has come a long way in the last several decades toward erasing some of its socioeconomic problems. A survey of CES' Community and Rural Development programs conducted in late 1985 and early 1986 identified a variety of CES activities…

The difficulties presently being faced by rural communities in the North Central Extension Region are well known. Many of these communities have economies which are closely tied to farming and therefore suffer economic hardship in direct relationship to those encountered by farmers. However, a dominant characteristic of communities in the region…