The Alabama StrikeForce Initiative for Rural Growth and Opportunity workshop is set for Tuesday at Lily Missionary Baptist Church, 199 Dean Street in Troy.

Rhonda Benton, publicity chair for the event, said the workshop is designed to encourage landowners, farmers and ranchers to either get started on the right track or continue on the right track as producers.

The workshop will provide valuable information about available USDA programs. The workshop will be from 10 a.m. until noon and will feature speakers from different USDA agencies.

The topics included in the Alabama StrikeForce Initiative workshop are government programs, home improvements and repairs, micro loans, tunnel house production, raised bed gardening and tunnel house educational programs for grade schools and senior citizen groups.

Jeff Knotts, FSA Pike County executive director, said the workshop is a way to make people aware of programs that are available to them.

“Some people are not aware of these programs so this workshop could be a source of valuable information,” he said. “Program eligibility, EQIP and forestry programs and tunnel house and crop production will be topics of interest.”

Knotts said there will be a question and answer period following the workshop presentations.

“I was at a StrikeForce Initiative in Tuskegee and there was a lot of interest in food and nutrition,” he said. “There could be similar interest at the workshop here.”

Benton said the StrikeForce Initiative also offers programs to schools, senior groups and civic groups.

“We are willing to take the ‘show on the road’ because the information that we have to share could be beneficial to many people,” she said. “The workshop is free and open to the public. We encourage landowners, farmers, ranchers and anyone else who has an interest in the programs offered by USDA Rural Development to attend.”

Dean Street is off Montgomery Street, north of Terra Cotta.