Improving Incomes of Farm People in Northern and Western Florida

Excerpts from the Introduction: The plight of low-income people who live in rural areas has been a subject of considerable interest in recent years. To help alleviate the problem, rural-area development and other economic programs contributing to the development and fuller utilization of resources in low-income areas are being initiated by governmental and civic organizations in many parts of the country. To provide guides to these programs, numerous research studies have been undertaken. Behind these studies is a twofold problem. The first centers on what the low-income individual or family can do within the present economic environment to break the low-income succession. The second, which overlaps the first, centers on how to improve the larger economic environment within which individuals and families attempt to solve their problems. This report is directed mainly to the second aspect of this problem as applied to northern and western Florida. It is designed to show the nature of the low-income farm problem and to indicate how resources in the areas can be used to advantage in its solution.