A Mother in Franklin County, Kentucky, Emailed KSU Area Agent for Small Farm’s Requesting USDA Rural Housing Technical Assistances for Her Son In Shelby County, Kentucky 

The Kentucky State University (KSU) Small Farm Program is an Extension program designed to help farm families with decision-making skills to solve farm and home problems. It includes educational programs that emphasize farm production, farm management, and marketing.  It also includes the use and understanding of local county programs and USDA agencies and their programs, plus providing technical assistance in completing applications for the program and the entire application process.  The KSU Small Farm Program’s Area Agent for Small Farms works with small, limited-resource, and minority farmers, most of whom have not used Extension prior to his intervention.  He targets minority farmers, farmers who are new to Extension, or farmers who think that Extension is not for them.  First he has to gain their confidence.  Then he has to show them that he can help them to meet some of their needs. 

 This is his experience with one family that requested technical assistance. 

A mother in Franklin County, Kentucky, emailed the KSU Area Agent for Small Farm’s at Kentucky State University, Cooperative Extension Program at 8:30am March 5, 2020 requesting assistance in fill out a USDA Rural Development Agency rural housing application for a new home. The KSU Area Agent for Small Farms Program, replied to the mother’s email stating that he was available at 2pm on March 5, 2020. The mother’s son and her grandson came to the KSU Area Agent for Small Farm’s office at Kentucky State University for him to assist her son in filling out the USDA rural housing application for a new home.  The application was completed by 5:00pm on March 5, 2020.  The son was given the original USDA rural housing application on March 5, 2020 to submit at the USDA Service Center office in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

The benefit of having the KSU Area Agent for Small Farm’s assist the son was to ensure that the application packets was complete with all supporting documents.  This is important because many times the applicants will not turn in all of the required documents.  For example, the income taxes which is a major item will often be missed from the application packet.  Application is currently being reviewed by USDA Rural Development Agency for funding.

On left of this picture is Edwin W. Chavous, Area Agent for Small Farm Program at Kentucky State University, Cooperative Extension Program and on the right of this picture is Shun Rice the applicant who is requesting technical assistance in fill out a United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) 502 rural housing application to qualify for a new home.