Gov. John Hoeven will host a Rural Community Summit in Bismarck at the Ramkota Hotel Aug. 26-27.

Designed to address the major challenges, major opportunities and share ideas of economic development, summit organizers expect as many as 200 people to attend the summit.

One of the expected speakers is Ed Shafer, U.S. secretary of agriculture and former North Dakota governor. Schafer will join Hoeven as a keynote speaker.

Thomas Dorr, under secretary for rural development and Jack Schultz, author of "Boomtown USA: The 71/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns," also will be keynote speakers at the summit.

Some of the issues discussed will be training, education, rural housing, incentive financing, community attitudes and other issues important to the rural development.

Nearly a month later, Schafer also is expected to attend the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture's annual meeting, Sept. 19-24, in Bismarck.

The meeting will be the first time NASDA has met in North Dakota in its 93-year history.

Most of the NASDA commissioners, secretaries and directors of agriculture of the 50 states and four U.S. territories are expected to attend the meeting along with other national farm leaders.

Activities for those attending will include a tour of Coal Creek Station, the nation's largest lignite-fired power plant, as well as visit to crops grown on what was recently a strip mine.

Also at the meeting, staff members of the Agricultural Research Service Station at Mandan will explain their work on a crop sequence calculator.

The meeting also will take attendees to Falkirk Mine, the Steve Heger Farm and the Gabe Brown Ranch.