The recently published Delta Council Economic Progress Report paints a picture of the Mississippi Delta region making steady gains in key economic indicators while weathering a depressed farm income picture. "I think this edition of the Economic Progress Report clearly indicates that the Delta is achieving progress by balancing our historical strengths in agriculture with an emerging manufacturing, service, and tourism economy," says Griffin Norquist of Yazoo City, chairman of Delta Council's Development Department. "It is significant that we now ask ourselves how much we have progressed rather than if we have progressed." The annual report, which gives a snapshot of 1999 figures the latest and most accurate benchmark economic indicators that are available details the progress which the 18 Delta and part-Delta counties of Northwest Mississippi have made in areas such as population, manufacturing employment, per capita income, retail sales, bank deposits, assessed valuation, and agricultural enterprises. Phillip Pepper, state economist for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, notes that in the Delta, employment figures and per capita income are both up. In addition, manufacturing growth increased almost 3 percent in the l990's, and, more significantly, non-manufacturing growth increased more than 30 percent. However, he emphasized that workforce education must be a top priority for the region. "The population's expectations and ideas about education, skill attainment, continuous learning, and life-long learning must be upgraded," Pepper states. "As a general rule, areas with the more educated workforce have grown faster than those areas with a lesser educated workforce. The improved capacity of the workforce will become increasingly important to the prosperity of any area and the Delta is no exception." Norquist observes that in order for the Delta to continue to see economic progress, the region should support economic growth issues. "The growth we have achieved over the last ten years has also created increasing demands on infrastructure such as transportation, job training, education, and environmental stewardship," says the Yazoo City banker. "We strongly believe that, working together, we can continue to meet these challenges effectively." The report's section on agriculture documents a trend that is becoming very familiar: low prices and average yields. The 1999 economic numbers for agriculture show a trend that continued in 2000 and could go on unabated into first the part of this decade. "Price problems continue to plague producers of crops grown in the Delta for the third year in a row," says Dr. John Lee, head of MS State University's Agricultural Economics Department. "For all crops, large stocks overhang the markets and could hold down prices for several more years, or until some major weather or political shock brings supply and demand back into balance." For a copy of the 2000 Delta Council Economic Progress Report, please contact Debbie Keen at 662-686-3365. DBJ