“I was stunned. It’s an honor and there’s a lot of respect associated with that honor,” Branton said. The fourth-generation Mississippi Delta farmer, who raises row crops and catfish in Washington and Sunflower counties, used his first public remarks as Delta Council president May 9 to emphasize before a large crowd at Delta State University the necessity of intelligence, determination, and persistence on the part of leaders.

Branton noted at the May 9 annual meeting that the last few years have been treacherous times for catfish producers, and that “the national economy has cast a long shadow” over farming. In an interview, he added to those observations by commenting that he hopes to use his presidency to promote all legally permissible means of hiking the return that farmers realize on pond-raised catfish.

“While retail prices have stayed high, the prices to the processors have gone down,” he says. Branton, 54, has been a catfish producer since the mid-1980s. On a statewide basis, the catfish business is worth about $350 million a year and provides about 20,000 jobs, according to Delta Council. “We’ve seen low prices, but not for the extended period of time we have in this depression,” Branton says.

However, Branton and Delta Council are careful to thank public officials for help the catfish industry has already received. Branton says U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is “a great guy,” and the Council gave its 2003 award for Outstanding Contributions to Aquaculture to Hunt Shipman, staff director of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee.

A second area in which Branton hopes to have an impact is a Delta Council constant: flood control. In particular, he has a desire to see progress made toward the construction of the planned Yazoo backwater pumps. The purpose of the politically controversial pumps is to relieve the southern portion of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta of flooding that occurs when high water stages on the Mississippi cause a backup of flows along the Yazoo and other tributaries of “Big Muddy.”

In a November 2002 resolution (to which some clarifying language has since been added), Delta Council says rainfall across a 1,550-square-mile area drains through the south Delta. There has been flooding in the south Delta more than half a dozen of the past 25 years, the resolution explains.

“All of our (Congressional) delegates are in support of it. They will support us fully on that,” Branton says of the Yazoo pumps project. Yet, he indicates he expects that interest-group litigation may slow up the process of moving from planning to construction.

In recent years Delta Council has taken steps to address education and health issues that affect economic development and performance. The organization has worked with Delta State University and superintendents of 34 school districts throughout the region to formulate the Delta Education Initiative. This project has helped address the teacher-shortage problem by providing scholarship funds to college students who agree to teach in the region after completing their degrees.

Delta Council has also carried out a successful pilot literacy project in Yazoo County, which it is planning to expand to other counties. Branton voices approval of these commitments and credits Ben Lamensdorf of Cary and Bryan Jones of Yazoo City, his two immediate predecessors as Delta Council president, for being instrumental in getting them off the ground.

Branton, in 2002-2003, chaired Delta Council’s Advisory Research Committee, which serves as a liaison body to facilitate communication between agricultural research units at Stoneville, Mississippi State University, and Congress for the purpose of obtaining necessary funding. Thus, he brings to the job of Council president both a producer’s concern about results in the field and a sensitivity to the diplomatic aspects of influencing policy.

Branton says there will probably be some committee meetings during the coming weeks, as Delta Council officers begin to address the next year of work. If new committee chairs need to be appointed, then that also will be done. He is quick to clarify, though, that he views Delta Council as “all those of us that work together” to address needs–a team effort based on honor and respect. Branton’s vice presidents for the 2003-2004 year of work will be Cobie Collins of Yazoo City, Scott Coopwood of Cleveland, John McKee of Clarksdale, Carver Randle, Sr., of Indianola, Ronnie Robertson of Greenwood, Mike Sanders of Cleveland, and Fred Miller of Anguilla.

Whatever Dan Branton may be called on to do for Delta Council and his community, however, he remains at heart a proud father and grandfather who lives to till “the same land on Deer Creek that our great grandfather bought back in 1899.” DBJ