• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

North Carolina Tobacco Farmers Look to Grow Crops Other Than Tobacco

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 December 2005, 21:00 CST

By Brian Louis, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Dec. 14--Longtime tobacco farmer Doug Dodson is not sure if he'll grow tobacco next year.

The price that Dodson of Stokes County received for the tobacco he sold this year was $1.55 a pound, down from $1.94 the year before. He said that it is becoming harder and harder to make money growing tobacco and he is looking into possibly doing something else.

Dodson was one of about 50 area farmers who attended a seminar yesterday at the Forsyth County Cooperative Extension Service on Fairchild Road in Winston-Salem where several speakers offered farmers a host of other crops they could grow other than tobacco.

Dodson, 55, said he received a lot of good ideas at the meeting, but it will be difficult for other crops to live up to tobacco.

"Nothing's going to replace tobacco," he said.

Blake Brown, an agricultural economist at N.C. State University, listed a number of possible agribusiness opportunities that farmers could enter, including nursery and floriculture crop production, growing organic fruits and vegetables and raising grass-fed beef.

Growing trees and shrubs for landscapers is a growing business in the state and a possibility for farmers looking for other crops to grow.

"It's a big industry in our state," Brown said. "It's a big part of our crop income."

Speakers also suggested that farmers consider entering the "agritourism" or "rural tourism" business.

For example, farmers could start businesses on their land charging people to hunt and fish or to go wildlife watching.

Tobacco farmers have some money available to them to invest in equipment for new agriculture ventures because of the $10 billion tobacco buyout that was approved last year.

But for smaller farmers such as Dodson, even with an annual buyout check of $20,000, making a living from farming is difficult, particularly with debts to pay and health insurance costs climbing.

He said that it is hard to make enough money on the farm to pay the bills and he is considering getting a job where he can obtain insurance.

-----

To see more of the Winston-Salem Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.journalnow.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Winston-Salem Journal

More News in this Category