Agricultural Potential of Selected Areas Within the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Excerpts from the report: In May 1955, the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, conferred with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concerning cooperative studies in the lower Mississippi River Basin relative to plans for land and water-resource development. At the request of the Corps, USDA agreed to supply certain basic agricultural data and information for use in the economic analysis. Surveys were made in each State by teams composed of engineers, soil scientists, foresters, and agricultural economists. Soil Conservation Service was responsible for engineering and soils data and completion and submission of the USDA reports to the Corps, the Forest Service for forestry data, and the Agricultural Research Service for economic aspects of the survey. The three agencies worked cooperatively in developing yields, land use, irrigation, drainage, and economic data and in writing the reports. This report brings together the information in the separate project-area reports relative to anticipated changes in the agricultural economy as a result of proposed project development. The objectives are to: (1) Present a physical inventory of the alluvial valley of the lower Mississippi River to depict its resources, physical characteristics, and its land and water problems as they relate to agricultural development and to give some idea of agricultural production in the alluvial valley and its importance to the economy of each of the Delta States and the Delta Region as a whole; (2) describe the land and water problems in each project area and discuss the extent to which these problems could be overcome by construction of the proposed project; (3) describe the procedures and assumptions used by USDA in evaluating benefits, present the results and findings of its evaluation, and point out the major limitations of the procedures used and the limitations of the evaluation study.