The fifth annual report of the Secretary of Agriculture on rural development (prepared in response to a directive from the Rural Development Act of 1972) summarizes current rural conditions by presenting the most recently available statistical data on employment, income, population, housing, and community services and facilities and illustrates the administration's rural development strategy from January 1977 through June 1979. Health care was chosen as the focal point of the first of a series of initiatives to make federal programs work better in rural areas. Other White House initiatives were undertaken in the areas of housing, water and sewer, transportation, communications, energy, federal-state cooperation, and economic development. As a result of the August 1977 merger of the Rural Development Service into the Farmers Home Administration, new initiatives to implement its new policies and redirection emphases included policy management support for research, technical assistance, and rural advocacy; state plans and outreach targeted at the most distressed rural people and communities; joint investment strategy agreements; service delivery and program improvement measures; and an area development assistance planning grant program. Other U.S. Department of Agriculture intradepartmental initiatives included policy research, services to the disadvantaged, assisting rural institutions, and protecting and improving the rural environment. (NEC)