Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, announced Friday that a total of $20,634,955 has been secured for 156 rural energy projects in 62 Iowa counties, including three Chickasaw County projects.
    The funds will be used to assist farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses in developing renewable energy systems and in making energy-efficiency improvements to their operations.
    Farmers Mill Inc. will receive a $49,972 grant and a loan for the same amount for its project to replace an inefficient energy  grain drying system. High Point Ltd. will receive a $50,000 grant and a $100,000 loan to purchase and install a kilowatt wind turbine. Ron Maher of Chickasaw County was awarded a $10,169 grant to replace an outdated grain dryer with a new, highly efficient grain dryer, which projects more than a 36 percent energy savings.
    “This funding is great news for family farms and small town businesses all across Iowa. These projects will improve energy efficiency and lower energy costs, while at the same time aiding our state’s economy,” said Harkin. “Rural communities are so important to the fabric of Iowa and projects such as these will help them continue to prosper.”
     The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). As former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Harkin worked to include a version of this program in the 2002 farm bill and expanded it to the current program in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, the 2008 farm bill.