Natural Resources Enterprises Program

Challenges

• Wide variability in agricultural prices creates a need for additional profit centers for private landowner sustainability.
• Much of Mississippi’s rural lands are not conducive to agricultural production; row-cropland lies fallow during the late fall to early spring periods; and forests often lie idle all year.
• Small, start-up businesses have a relatively high rate of failure; education is crucial for long-term business success.

Extension Response

The Natural Resource Enterprises (NRE) program was established to educate private landowners about sustainable natural resource enterprises and compatible habitat management practices.

• Through a variety of resources and delivery methods, Extension faculty and professional staff deliver educational materials and technical assistance to private landowners in such areas as business identification and development, habitat and land management, and marketing.
• In 2024, NRE education resulted in 31 enterprises developed in eight states, with 24 of these businesses located in Mississippi.
• Eighty percent of these enterprises were hunting-related, and the average revenue per business in the first year of operation was $15,549 ($373,176 revenue for all enterprises).
• In addition, 12,000 acres in Mississippi experienced improved conservation practices that have economic and environmental benefits to the state above the direct revenue received as a result of operations ($25.6 million).

Economic Impacts

• NRE business revenues could support $379,552 in value-added and an additional $85,948 in output above the level of sales.
• These revenues could generate an estimated $3,092 in municipal taxes, $7,686 in local special district (e.g., school district) taxes, and $6,242 in county government taxes, for a total of $17,019 in local taxes in 2024.
• New NRE revenues could generate an estimated $33,410 in state taxes and $32,643 in federal taxes.
• Conservation practices associated with NREs established in 2024 could support 359 jobs earning $19 million; $25.4 million in value-added; and $39.8 million in total output.
• In addition, these conservation practices could generate total estimated local taxes of $433,876, state taxes of $1.1 million, and federal taxes of $3.95 million.

M2480-17 (10-25)

Daryl Jones, PhD, Extension Professor, Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture