What is the Louisiana Delta Initiative Mission?

The LSU Agricultural Center’s Delta Rural Development Center and the Southern University Agricultural Center were charged with the responsibility to discover and implement a set of best practices to eradicate poverty in the parishes located in the Louisiana Delta Initiative (LDI) according to legislation passed in 2007 (R.S. 3:333). Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, Franklin, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Pointe Coupee, Richland, Tensas and West Carroll parishes were identified as part of the LDI region.

The LDI is a regional network of community and economic development organizations cooperatively working together to discover and implement a set of best practices to address such poverty issues as improving access to affordable health care, strengthening public educational systems, creating jobs and entrepreneurial communities and developing infrastructure to support economic growth, especially broadband.