The AdvancerARKANSAS LAND AND COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION’S

SPRING 2018FARGO, ARKANSAS

ALCDC to hold Economic

Summit June 7 in Little RockFARGO — Arkansas Land and

Community Development Cor-poration (ALCDC) in partnership with Watershed Human and Community Development Agency will hold a Community Economic Development Summit on Thursday, June 7, in Little Rock.

The Summit is being held at the Watershed Human and Community Development Agency Inc. on 3701 Springer Blvd., Little Rock. Registration starts at 5:30 p.m. The summit will begin at 6 p.m. Dinner is being provided for participants. There is no charge for the Summit & the dinner.

Topics covered include micro urban farming, heir property resolutions, and affordable housing solutions. For more information interested persons can contact Mary Harris or Mykela Sparkman at 870-734-3005.

Arkansas Land and Com-munity Development Cor-poration (ALCDC) YECAE and EXCEL program host-ed its annual youth rally on Saturday, April 21. The youth rally kicked off at 10 a.m. The purpose of theevent is to inform youthabout the program andwork with them throughthe application process.The kids enjoyed food andgames as well. Interviewsfor the program are set forMay 19 at 9 a.m. for thosethat submitted anapplication. The programis set to kick off on June18th with both the EXCEL2-week training camp andthe YECAE workexperience.

FARGO — Urban farming is a local food system where food is produced and cultivated within a city or town. Most urban farms market their goods to consum-ers within the area in which they produce the goods. Urban Farming has been around for many years and has proven to be very beneficial to urban areas by providing locally grown, fresh produce and other products in the community resulting to better nutrition and health within the area. If utilized correctly, urban farming can be used to provide jobs, job training, and health education.

How to start an urban farmStarting an urban farm can be

challenging if there is not proper preparation. There are many things to consider before starting an urban farm. Operation type, adequate resources, and experi-ence are amongst a few things to consider. A business plan is vital for the start-up and operation. A business plan should be consid-ered a roadmap in business. It allows you to analyze your plan for marketing, manufacturing, and sales to name a few. It also helps provide vision and serves as an internal planning tool to greatly improve your chances for

success. ALCDC has provided services

to hundreds of farmers over the years. Providing them the op-portunity of starting a new farm or expanding an existing farm operation, by helping them devel-op business plans, working with them step by step in the farm loan application process, and connecting them with funding sources. ALCDC partners with many entities to help service different counties, such as USDA-Natural Resource Conservation, USDA-Strikeforce, USDA-Outreach, and Financial Institutions in each county.

ALCDC host annual youth rally ...

PAGE 2 The Advancer

Board of DirectorsDr. Brian CorneliousBoard Chair

Corey FarmerVice Chair

Everlyn BryantSecretary

Harrison LockeTreasurer

Elmer BeardGeorge RichardsonJudge Berlin JonesRebecca MartinDeborah MatthewsJulius HancockCurtis TateSamuel Turner IIITim WilliamsRoger SmithGary DobsonLinda WilsonRubye Johnson

AdministratorsDr. Calvin R. King Sr. President and Chief Executive Officer

Melissa BaileyChief Financialand Operations Officer

Integrated water management at Fargo ... Ricky Bone oversees an aspect of an integrated water management at his farm in Fargo. The ap-proach produces “triple bottom line” benefits (social, economic and environmental) in an equitable and sustainable manner and creates flexible, resilient water infrastructure that can respond to a range of scenarios. Integrated water management considers the urban water cycle as a single inte-grated system, in which all urban water flows are recognized as potential resources. Integrated water management is practiced through inclusive and jointly planned management of all water systems– where all waters are resources and are valued and put to use.

FARGO — In the short span of time between the close of the Civil War and 1920, African Ameri-cans obtained nearly 20 million acres of land in the United States. Collectively, these acquisitions represented nothing short of a heroic achievement in a society largely hostile to African America property ownership. These original purchasers used land ownership to participate meaningfully in the economic and political life of the nation and to impart a legacy to future generations. They hoped that land ownership would lead to self-sufficiency, economic opportunity, and political participation for their descendants. Over the decades, this land has come to represent not only a potentially sub-stantial asset to otherwise cash-poor individuals, but an essential connection to history, family, and culture.

Today, while some low-income African-Ameri-can families in rural areas (but also in some urban areas) continue to own significant land holdings that have been passed down over the generations, the vast majority of this land has been lost over the last 90 years. The causes are numerous, and include illegal acts by unscrupulous lawyers, acts of violence against black landowners to drive them off their property, and massive discrimination against black farmers by the USDA. However, one additional major cause is an inability to utilize the legal system due to income, discrimination, or a well-founded distrust of that system.

The result of lack of access to the legal system is that property transfers have occurred generation after generation without the benefit of wills or estate plans. In the absence of such tools, the own-

ership of land has become increasingly fractionated with the passing of each generation.

Without a will (or a carefully drafted will), property quickly descends into an untenable, multi-owner situation. For instance, if an owner passes away intestate (i.e., without a will), and that owner has five children, those five children will each have an undivided 1/5 interest as “tenants in common” (the legal term for heirs’ property). “Un-divided” means that each has the right to use and occupation of the entire property. If each of those 5 heirs has 5 children themselves, then when the original 5 heirs die there will be 25 owners. As the generations pass, there are more and more owners, sometimes hundreds.

Heir property refers to land that has been passed down informally from generation-to generation. In most cases, it involves landowners who died without a will. Heirs’ property is land owned “in common” by all the heirs, regardless if whether they live on the land, pay the taxes, or have even stepped foot on the land. Heir’s who don’t live on the land have the same rights to the use, enjoyment and benefit of the land who may live on it. Payment of taxes does not increase an heir’s percentage of ownership. Heirs that do not contribute do not lose any rights to ownership. Each heir owns a “percentage” of the whole property (“not a piece”). That percentage is determined by where they fall in the family tree. People often think that getting land surveyed grants ownership. A survey is not a deed. It cannot grant ownership of land to any heir. Ownership of any real property can only be transferred by a duly-recorded deed.

Understanding heir property

Date: Thursday, June 7, 2018

Place: Watershed Human & Community

Development Agency, Inc.

3701 Springer Blvd.

Little Rock, AR 72201

Registration starts at 5:30 p.m. and the Summit begins at 6:00 p.m. This meeting is free to the

public and dinner is provided.

TOPICS Micro Urban Farming

Heir Property Resolutions

Housing

“Arkansas Land and Community Development

Corporation” In Partnership with “Watershed

Human and Community Development Agency, Inc.”

are sponsoring a COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT

PAGE 4 The Advancer

Attends area health fair in Marianna...Mykela Sparkman (photo above), youth coordi-nator and administrative assistant with ALCDC disseminate information about the ALCDC's Youth Programs, YECAE & EXCEL, during the Health Fair on April 4 at the Lee County High School. The fair was sponsored by Lee County Cooperative Clinic of Marianna. Sparkman (pho-to right, middle) and Van Banks (far right), farm advisor with ALCDC, visits with Bryant Stephens (far left).

PAGE 5The Advancer

ALCDC holds economic summit in Helena-West Helena

HELENA-WEST HELENA — Ar-kansas Land and Community Devel-opment Corporation (ALCDC) held a Community Economic Development Summit on Thursday, April 19, at the Temple Beth El in Helena. Registra-tion for the summit began at 9:30 a.m. and the opening session started at 10 a.m.

Over the past 37 years, ALCDC’sprogram services delivery has been dedicated toward supporting equal access and service delivery to econom-ically challenged rural communities.

ALCDC’s successful programmatic partnership approaches have expe-rienced many successes in housing and economic development, family farm retention and youth services. ALCDC’s vision and commitment, along with partnerships, supporters, and friends continue our process for addressing the many challenges and needs for the underserved and under-privileged in rural areas.

Representatives from United States Department of Agriculture’s Natu-ral Resource Service, Farm Service Agency and Rural Development made presentations on available services. The summit included ALCDC’s New & Beginning Farmers & Ranchers (Veterans) Program, Micro-Urban Farming, Conservation Risk Manage-ment Practices for Limited Resource

SPEAKER ... Dr. Calvin R. King Sr., president and chief executive officer of ALCDC, spoke about a number of different programs offered by ALCDC to support equal access and service delivery of government farm pro-grams to economically challenged rural communities

ATTENDEES ... A number of people attended Arkansas Land and Community Development Corporation’s Community Economic Development Summit held in Helena-West Helena.

and Historically Underserved Farmers, Ranchers and Landowners, Equality and Equity Resource Opportunities for Heir Property and Housing.

Participants were able to meet on an individual basis regarding the Begin-

WELCOME... Thomas Jacques, as-sistant director of the Delta Culture Center in Helena-West Helena, wel-comes participants to the Arkansas Land and Community Development Corporation’s Community Economic Development Summit held on April 19 at the Temple Beth El.

ning Farmers and Ranchers Program, heir property and technical produc-tion immediately after the Summit. The One-On-One Consultations were conducted by members of ALCDC Staff.

PAGE 6 The Advancer

FARGO — In a national survey of young and beginning farmers, capital was cited as the number one barrier for those who would like to start farming. While there are a variety of financing options available for aspiring farmers – including private banks, Farm Credit, and the Farm Service Agency – current agricultural credit programs do not adequately meet the needs of many non-traditional and smaller borrowers.

These farmers may include those who are young or beginning producers, diversified op-erations selling directly to consumers (i.e. CSA and farmers’ market farms), small farmers, and urban and peri-urban farms. Operators of these types often have difficulty obtaining financing due to a lack of credit history, the increased risk associated with lending to a new or young farmer, or unfamiliarity with small, diversified farming operations. USDA’s new microloan program was created in order to meet the smaller credits needs and reflect the scale of operations of small, beginning farmers and diversified farms serving local markets.

Program BasicsThe purpose of the Farm Service Agency’s

(FSA) microloan program is to meet the smaller credit needs of small, young, begin-ning, socially disadvantaged, and veteran farmers through a simplified loan application process. This program may also be appropriate

Farm Service Agency’s Micro-loan program:Providing opportunity for micro-urban farms

for farmers serving local and regional food markets, including urban and small-scale diversified farmers.

Microloans may be used to cover both annual operating expenses, such as seeds, an-imals, small equipment, or other investments that farmers require for their operations, as well as to purchase farmland. Microloan re-payment schedules and loan terms are similar to those of Direct Operating and Ownership Loans. Loans may be made for up to $50,000.

EligibilityThe same eligibility criteria for FSA Direct

Operating and Ownership Loans apply to microloans.

Unlike other direct loan programs operated by FSA, microloans made to beginning and veteran farmers do not count toward the total number of years that a farmer can receive assistance through FSA’s direct loan program. For all other farmers, microloans do count to-ward the seven-year term limit during which a farmer can receive FSA direct loan assistance.

Additionally, the loan recipient must be able to repay and provide enough collateral to secure the loan on at least a dollar-for-dol-lar basis, and use the loan for authorized purposes. Similar to other FSA loans, a third party pledge of security or co-signer may be accepted to meet these security requirements.

In order to be eligible for the new microloan program, a farmer must have sufficient prior experience working on a farm, but borrowers will be given additional flexibility to include small business experience, participating in a self-directed apprenticeship, or having prior involvement with an agricultural organization, such as 4-H, FFA, farm incubator programs, and farm training organizations.

Compared to standard direct and guar-anteed farm loans, FSA will not require an itemized cash flow budget for microloan appli-cants, a previous requirement that had made it difficult for diversified fruit and vegetable growers and community-supported agricul-ture farmers to participate in FSA lending programs.

How to Apply andProgram Resources

There is a streamlined application process for microloans that requires less paperwork for farmers to fill out and appropriately reflects the smaller loan amount. Microloan applica-tion forms are available online but farmers must apply in person at an FSA county office or USDA Service Center.

The Microloan program is administered by the Farm Service Agency. Information about the program is posted on the FSA website under Farm Loan Programs.

Hoop houseat Fargo ... A High Tunnel System, commonly called a “hoop house,” is an increasingly popular conservation practice for farmers, and is available with financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). High tunnels protect plants from severe weather and allow farmers to extend their growing seasons – growing earlier into the spring, later into the fall, and sometimes, year-round. And because high tunnels prevent direct rainfall from reaching plants, farmers can use precise tools like drip irrigation to efficiently deliver water and nutrients to plants. High tunnels also offer farmers a greater ability to control pests and can even protect plants from pollen and pesticide drift. With high tunnel systems, no summer is too short or winter too cold. Mary and Ricky Bone use a hoop house on their farm at Fargo.

PAGE 7The Advancer

ALFDC/ALCDC Partnership Membership Renewal Form

October 2018 - September 2019________ Individual Membership $40 ________ Organization Membership $200

Membership BenefitsAdvocacy and Public Relations — ALCDC/ALFDC participates in federal and state hearing sessions that focus on policy development for family farmers, youth and underserved rural communities.

Leadership Opportunities — ALCDC/ALFDC offers leadership opportunities with the organization for our youth, farmers and rural resi-dents. Members are encouraged to serve as youth mentors, sit on advisory boards on federal and state advisory boards and local levels.

Marking Opportunities — ALCDC/ALFDC offers cooperative marketing opportunities for farmers, ru-ral businesses, federal agencies, colleges and universities interested in enhancing the lives of rural Americans. We also offer the opportunity to present or set up an exhibit during our Annual Conference and Membership meeting and quarterly regional Summits. We also offer discounted facility rental fee to all ALCDC/ALFDC members.

Access to Housing, Farming and Youth Services — ALCDC/ALFDC offers rural residents the opportunity to affordable housing, home ownership education, business development, assistance with accessing farm financing and other private and public resources, training on conservation program services and practices, youth leadership development, education enrichment and workforce readiness.

Information and Communication — ALCDC/ALFDC members can communicate with ALCDC representative via phone or website con-cerning their farming, housing or youth service’s needs. Also, members receive ALCDC updates and news through our quarterly newsletters and ALCDC website.

Name ________________________________________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________________________________________________

City, Zip Code _______________________________________________________________________

Phone _______________________________________________________________________________

Please return your application and tax-deductible contribution to:ALCDC/ALFDC Membership Program

P.O. Box 743Brinkley, AR 72021

ALCDC/ALFDC services and programs are available without regardto race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability or familial status.

NON-PROFITORGANIZATIONU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPERMIT NO. 40BRINKLEY, AR

72021

P.O. Box 907Brinkley AR 72021

About The Advancer

The Advancer is a publication of the Arkansas Land and Community Devel-opment Corporation. It is printed and circulated as a public service and com-munication resource for our membership and constituents. This publication is also circulated to a broad range of organizations and residents throughout the Delta and the United States. The Advancer reflects the nature of our work providing self help opportu-nities and support services to our farmers and others of limited resources in our 42 county service area. Our work is dedicated to helping people become more productive and self-sufficient. You comments and suggestions are appreciated. Direct all comments and inquiries regarding this publication by phone to (870) 734-3005 or e-mail to mary_harris15@yahoo.com. You may correct your mailing address on the label above and fax back to (870) 734-4197 or call Mary Harris at (870) 734-3005.ALCDC StaffDr. Calvin R. King Sr., President and Chief Executive OfficerMary Harris, Farm Administrative Assistant, Office AdministratorMelissa Bailey, Chief Financial and Operations Officer (CFOO)Lashica Miller, Accounts ReceivableMykela Sparkman, Youth Coordinator and Administrative Assistant

Tameecia Patterson, Special Assistant for OperationsOrdrean Taylor, Accounts PayableAlbert Jones, Farm DirectorMike Tucker, Farm AdvisorVan Banks, AgronomistNelson Hubbert, Environmental EngineerJasmine Jones, Housing Asst.

Cathrine Jacques, Editor of Advancer

Multi-Family Housing (off-site)Joyce Pannell, McNeil Apartments, Phase I Site Manager, CrawfordsvilleShannon Barnes, Chapel Ridge, Phase I and II, Forrest City,Resident Manager Keisha Caffey, Meadowbrook, Marianna, Helena-West Helena, Resident Manager Amanda Rogers, Alcott Manor, Palestine Yolunda Riley, Stone Brook, Forrest City and Wynne, Resident ManagerTameecia Patterson, McNeil Apartments, Phase II Site ManagerLashica Miller, Pinewood Apartments Site Manager

ALCDCMission

StatementThe mission

of ALCDC is to provide advocacy outreach,technical assistance

and trainingto limited resource small

farmers and all rural residents to alleviate

poverty, enhancesustainable

farming and strengthencommunities’ economic

sustainabilityand workforce

readiness.

ALCDC services and pro-grams are available without regard to age, race, religion, gender or physical handicap.