Room to grow.

Ben Burkett knows farming. A native of Petal, he grew up helping on his family's farm and has been farming on his own for the last 30 years. But he's working more efficiently these days, thanks to practical assistance from Alcorn State University's Mississippi Small Farm Development Center in Lorman.

The center began operating in 1995 with a mission to assist Mississippi's small-scale farmers in establishing and sustaining their enterprises. To aid some of the state's 43,000 farmers--88 percent of whom are classified as small-scale producers with gross incomes of $50,000 or less--the center controls a $2.5 million revolving fund for small farm loans.

Associate director Gregory Reed has seen the center evolve. "We have made major strides since we began," says Reed. "We are the only program in the country based at a higher learning institute that has funding to loan to farmers."

Burkett, whose daughter just graduated from Alcorn, and other members of cooperatives like the Indian Springs Farmers Association have benefitted from the center's programs in tangible ways. "The center has really helped us over the last few years with loans and new technologies," Burkett says. "You can't sell to buyers like Wal-Mart and other supermarkets if you don't have HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) certification, and the center sent people down here to teach the certification classes for us."

The center also recommends plants that are not only suitable for Mississippi's growing conditions but are also in demand nationally. "They have helped us figure out what varieties to grow, how to grow them best, and which ones have the best markets," says Burkett, who recently began participating in the center's field trials for both culinary and medicinal herbs.

The emerging medicinal plant industry is only one of the center's target endeavors, says center director Magid Dagher; Alcorn experts also encourage farmers to grow shiitake mushrooms, the second most popular mushroom in the world. "There is a great demand for these mushrooms in the South," says the center's shiitake specialist, Joe Buzhardt. "... It's possible that in the next few years, we could see shiitake as a primary crop for Mississippi farmers."

For information, call 601/877-6449 or see www.alcorn.edu/outreach/sfdc/.