In early August, USDA Rural Development Puerto Rico held a stakeholder meeting to discuss Rural Development priorities for President Obama’s 2013 budget and 2012 Farm Bill.
The main objective the meeting was to obtain valuable input to develop and improve our mission area priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Leaders of local businesses & NGO’s shared their ideas and discussed on how Rural Development can enhance their programs and serve better our rural communities.
The discussion focused on three areas: general topics, programs that help rural community thrive and programs that help rural entrepreneurs create economic opportunities.
The moderator of the forum was José Otero-García, USDA Rural Development State Director. The activity was cover by the local press.
The discussion proved to be one of great interest and concluded with an agreement to realize future follow up meetings to discuss further policy and analyze the feedback from the group.
The input of this meeting will be submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture’s Office.
This effort is part of President Obama’s Executive Order 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review”, which sets out principles and requirements that promote public participation in government and encourage agencies to coordinate, simplify, reduce costs and promote consistency for businesses and the public.