Policy makers and researchers have long been concerned about the economic well-being of rural areas. The role of the government in providing public services through effective rural development planning programs and projects has been emphasized in many advanced countries. This paper has identified following six major areas of challenges faced by the U.S. rural planners. 1. Agricultural policy has been in turmoil for many years. the agenda facing policy makers is quite broad. In addition to traidtional concerns with agricultural support programs, today, the agenda is much broader and includes concerns about the quality of rural life, environmental safety and quality, technology development, international market development, food safety and nutrition, and macroeconomic policy linkages. 2. The increased size, reduced numbers, and increased mechanization of farms trend to lead to a socio-economic decline in rural communities. A changing agriculture structure has significant impacts on population and the demand for public services. However, since 1970s, the population turnaround has occured in the U.S., as revealed by the renewed popultaion growth in rural America. Also, many of the changes occuring in the rural areas have been heightended by increased linkages to the macroeconomy. 3. After nearly a century of using rules and regulations in an attempt to bring order to an unstable economy, state and federal governments have changed their policy. The effects of deregulation on rual communities needs the careful attention of agricultural economists. 4. Many rural states and communities are planning and implementing rural development programs to bolster their lagging economies in the 1990s. One central strategy in these efforts is to make capital more available to rural businesses. Evidence on rural lending in the 1980s offer only weak support for new public credit programs. 5. As a profession the U.S. agricultural economists were so successful over the four decades 1925 to 1965 that it has been hard for them to beleive anything was worng, even as they recorded how rapidly the world was changing around them. There are changing in the farm and rural community economies is clear. Those changes have substantial impact on the political economy of the Land Grant system and of Extension. Academic and professional programs are required to adapt to meet the new social demand. Even the orthodox prescriptive methodology for practicing agricultural economists are challenged for modification. 6. The economic conditions of limited-resource farmers (LRFs) face many problems such as small scale, inadequate capital and technologies. In an attempt to improve their economic conditions, government has focused on identifying enterprises that are profitable on a small scale, such as improved varieties of traditional cash crops, fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices. Finally, every nation has its own unique agriculture and rural community problems. However, after reviewing many rural development articles concerning the challenges confronted by the U.S., this paper conclude that some of the U.S. experiences are very useful reference for many other advanced countries, as well as for newly industrializing countries like Taiwan.