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Agriculture forms an important part of the economy, society, and history of the American state of Mississippi.

History

Mississippi's rank as one of the poorest states is related to its dependence on cotton agriculture before and after the American Civil War, late development of its frontier bottomlands in the Mississippi Delta, repeated natural disasters of flooding in the late 19th and early 20th century that required massive capital investment in levees, and ditching and draining the bottomlands, and slow development of railroads to link bottomland towns and river cities. In addition, when Democrats regained control of the state legislature, they passed the 1890 constitution that discouraged corporate industrial development in favor of rural agriculture, a legacy that would slow the state's progress for years.

Before the Civil War, Mississippi was the fifth-wealthiest state in the nation, its wealth generated by the labor of slaves in cotton plantations along the rivers.

Largely due to the domination of the plantation economy, focused on the production of agricultural cotton, the state's elite was reluctant to invest in infrastructure such as roads and railroads. They educated their children privately. Industrialization did not reach many areas until the late 20th century. The planter aristocracy, the elite of antebellum Mississippi, kept the tax structure low for their own benefit, making only private improvements. Before the war the most successful planters, such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis, owned riverside properties along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers in the Mississippi Delta. Away from the riverfronts, most of the Delta was undeveloped frontier.

Blacks cleared land, selling timber and developing bottomland to achieve ownership. In 1900, two-thirds of farm owners in Mississippi were blacks, a major achievement for them and their families. Due to the poor economy, low cotton prices and difficulty of getting credit, many of these farmers could not make it through the extended financial difficulties. Two decades later, the majority of African Americans were sharecroppers. The low prices of cotton into the 1890s meant that more than a generation of African Americans lost the result of their labor when they had to sell their farms to pay off accumulated debts.

After the Civil War, the state refused for years to build human capital by fully educating all its citizens. In addition, the reliance on agriculture grew increasingly costly as the state suffered loss of cotton crops due to the devastation of the boll weevil in the early 20th century, devastating floods in 1912–1913 and 1927, collapse of cotton prices after 1920, and drought in 1930.

In the modern era more of an emphasis has been placed on sustainable agriculture.

The negative effects of overdevelopment and climate change on agriculture in California have made large scale commercial farming in the Mississippi Delta more attractive.

Blueberries

The blueberry was made Mississippi's state fruit in 2023.

Wine

Poultry

Poultry makes up the lions share of Mississippi's agricultural production by value at $3.8 billion in 2023.

Soybeans

Soybean production was worth $1.3 billion in 2023.

Education

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Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity" and has a total research and development budget of $239.4 million, the largest in Mississippi.

The university was chartered as Mississippi Agricultural & Mechanical College on February 28, 1878, and admitted its first students in 1880. Organized into 12 colleges and schools, the university offers over 180 baccalaureate, graduate, and professional degree programs, and is home to Mississippi's only accredited programs in architecture and veterinary medicine. Mississippi State participates in the National Sea Grant College Program and National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. The university's main campus in Starkville is supplemented by auxiliary campuses in Meridian, Gautier, and Biloxi.

Events

The Mississippi State Fair is Mississippi's primary agricultural fair.

Museums

The Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum is in Jackson, Mississippi.

See also

• List of plantations in Mississippi

References

1. ^ John Otto Solomon,The Final Frontiers, 1880–1930: Settling the Southern Bottomlands. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999, pp.10–11, 42–43, 50–51, and 70
2. Naipaul, V.S. (1990). A Turn in the South. Vintage. p. 216. ISBN 978-0679724889. The people who wrote the constitution wanted the state to remain 'a pastoral state, an agricultural state'. They didn't want big business or the corporations coming in, encouraging 'unfavorable competition for jobs with the agricultural community'.
3. "Mississippi Almanac Entry". The New York Times. July 15, 2004. Archived from the original on May 26, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2010., The New York Times Travel Almanac (2004)
4. Cite error: The named reference Willis Forgotten Time was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. McArthur, Danny. "These 3 farms are an example of Mississippi's growing network of sustainable agriculture". mpbonline.org. Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
6. STEPHENSON, CASSANDRA; IRELAND, ILLAN; POWELL, PHILLIP. "As climate threats to agriculture mount, could the Mississippi River delta be the next California?". arkansasadvocate.com. Arkansas Advocate. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
7. Ulmer, Sarah. "The Blueberry: Mississippi's new state fruit". magnoliatribune.com. Magnolia Tribune. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
8. Cite error: The named reference Mississippi wine appellation_america was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Grove, Garret. "Mississippi's agriculture industry worth $9 billion". wjtv.com. WJTV. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
10. "Mississippi State University Sponsored Programs Administration Web Page". Archived from the original on April 29, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
11. "2013 Mississippi Code :: Title 37 - Education :: Chapter 113 - Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science". Justia Law. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
12. "City of Starkville Street Map". City of Starkville. Archived from the original on June 27, 2016. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
13. "Campus Map (Mississippi State University)". November 18, 2006. Archived from the original on November 18, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
14. "Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education". February 1, 2016. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
15. Team, ITS Web Development. "Academics". Mississippi State University. Archived from the original on October 16, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
16. "Peters Wins NCAA Javelin Championship, Quijera Takes Second - Mississippi State University". Mississippi State University Athletics. June 6, 2018. Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
17. "Jack Leiter strikes out 8 in Vanderbilt's Game 1 CWS finals win | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
18. "College baseball: 10 must-visit baseball stadiums this season". NCAA.com. April 12, 2018. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
19. "The John Grisham Room » Mississippi State University Libraries". lib.msstate.edu. Archived from the original on December 31, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
20. Grove, Garret. "Lost history of the Mississippi State Fair". wjtv.com. WJTV. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
21. Ingle, Courtney. "Mississippi's Ag Museum offers low cost family fun". magnoliatribune.com. Magnolia Tribune. Retrieved 13 January 2025.

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