Released March 8, 2010
MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Fewer cotton acres in Mississippi mean less demand for cotton ginning, and whole communities in the Mississippi Delta are feeling the impact of the loss of their livelihoods.
A cotton gin is the piece of equipment that separates the cotton seeds from the fiber. Eli Whitney mechanized this process for the first time in 1793.
John Michael Riley, an agricultural economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said since 2000, Mississippi has seen a 34 percent decrease in the number of operating cotton gins, from 109 to 72. Back in 1991, the state had 181 cotton gins. Some of the decrease is due to the development of more efficient gins, but gins are simply processing less cotton.
“There were 62 gins in 2000 that ginned 10,000 or more bales a year, representing 53 percent of gins. That same year, 54 gins processed less than 10,000 bales,” Riley said. “In 2008, that changed to 47, or 65 percent, ginning less than 10,000 bales, and 25 ginning more than 10,000 bales.”
--continued on Mississippi State University news
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