Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s first in-state field hearing of the Senate Agriculture committee she now chairs brought a welcome relief for the Senator from discussions about health care.  Today’s focus was agricultural issues and other major needs important to rural communities, including broadband access and international economic development.

More than 150 leaders from the state’s agricultural community as well as other representatives of rural Arkansas were in attendance.

The panels assembled for the hearing largely discussed agricultural issues, such as the recent rains that have ruined many crops, troubles within the timber industry due to housing and construction woes, and international market expansion for cattle, poultry and grain production.

But broadband access and its ability to transform rural communities became a focal point of discussion during the afternoon event.

Sam Walls, CEO of Arkansas Capital Corp., talked about the $1.6 million his organization just received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Walls said that money would be spent to complete a map of where broadband exists in the state by the first quarter of 2010.  

But Walls added that access was only a part of the solution of getting high-speed Internet to rural Arkansas.

“Oftentimes, when discussion regarding broadband occurs, there is much emphasis on access,” said Walls.

He revealed that 4 pilot projects were underway in Columbia, Desha, Faulkner, and Woodruff counties to engage strategic planning programs for using information technology in those communities.  Those initiatives also have a first quarter 2010 deadline for completion.

Walls rattled off a laundry list of statistics that shows Arkansas has low rankings in rural broadband use, such as:

47th – percentage of population online
49th – broadband telecommunications deployment
38th – online agriculture

He also noted that rural counties such as Desha and Columbia have very low levels of broadband demand from household consumers.  Only 38% of households in Desha County subscribe to broadband Internet, while Columbia County broadband subscribership is 39%.  Conversely, suburban Faulkner County touts broadband household levels of 70%.

“It is statistics such as these that further illustrate the need to not just provide access, but to also ensure that our people can use it,” Walls said.