My friends joke with me about growing up in a “suburb of Manila.” Lost Cane (Mississippi County) is a lovely spot with gravel roads about 10 miles south of the Arkansas-Missouri line. I live there today with no intentions of moving until the Good Lord decides to take me to my eternal home.

If you look for Lost Cane on the official Arkansas highway map, we’re not there. Yet Lost Cane, to me, represents Arkansas, a state full of small communities.

As a child, when school was out for the summer – and our daily chores were done – you could see many young people playing ball, riding bikes, playing on the riverbank and just having fun. I had one standing rule while growing up. Be home by dark. My parents weren’t overly concerned about my whereabouts, because they understood that in our close-knit rural community everyone looked out for each other. This environment is where many of us developed our morals, our values and our respect for people’s property. We developed a deep sense of responsibility for others, along with a true love for agriculture and the important role it played in our everyday lives.

I owe much of who I am today to Lost Cane. And our state owes much of what it’s become during 173 years to the small, rural communities that dot her landscape. People from those communities have run major corporations, led military charges throughout the world, been honored among the greatest athletes of all time, served as governors of our beautiful state, and even led the most powerful nation in the world as President.

Arkansas’ small communities serve this state well. Arkansas Farm Bureau understands this need for vibrant rural communities. Recently, we added an additional function to our Rural Health and Safety Committee, chaired by Richard Armstrong of Ozark (Franklin County). Now this committee has a Rural Development component. We want to broaden our impact on the things that affect rural communities. Things like water services, fire departments, school districts, transportation infrastructure, health care and job creation for these communities.

As a member of the American Farm Bureau board of directors, I’m happy to note that strengthening rural communities is a priority for Farm Bureau. Our rural development efforts will focus on five critical areas:

• Economic development
• Strengthening education
• Rural infrastructure
• Broadband accessibility
• Health care

Arkansas agriculture is a key component of this state’s rural communities. However, agriculture alone cannot sustain rural economies. Rural communities certainly need a thriving agricultural economy to be successful, but they need other economic activities too. Legislative, civic and business leaders must continue to seek ways to stimulate rural jobs and economic growth to sustain rural communities and the farms surrounding them.

Take it from someone who grew up in a community so rural it’s not even on the state highway map. Arkansas’ rural communities are the truest gems our state has ever produced. We must maintain and improve these communities or the values fostered there will be lost to future generations. We can’t afford to lose this most valuable treasure.