Tobacco
making a
comeback

By RAY WYCHE

Flue-cured tobacco, the crop that fueled Columbus County’s economy for almost a century and that some thought would fade away after the elimination of the quota-price support program two years ago, showed a big gain in acreage in the 2006 crop year.

Columbus County growers planted about 1,100 more acres in tobacco than they did last year. The crop reports shows 4,959.65 acres of tobacco planted in 2006, compared to 3,822 grown in 2005.

Most of the tobacco grown in the county is produced under contract with tobacco manufacturers. Tobacco sales warehouses, once numerous in the county and where tobacco was sold by auction system, have completely faded from the sales scene; there are no warehouses in the county. A few years ago at least 26 were in operation.

The trend toward a jump in flue-cured tobacco is statewide. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports an increase of 24 percent in the number of acres of tobacco in the state, with about 150,000 acres grown this year.

The 4,959 acres of tobacco is being grown by 373 farmers, a much smaller number than in years past when an estimated 1,500 farmers produced tobacco.

Agriculture Extension Agent Michael Shaw said the reason for the increase in tobacco plantings comes down to “the bottom line. People think they can make some money at it. And compared to corn and soybeans, they stand to make more per acre,” Shaw said.

Shaw pointed out that a sure market—tobacco sold on contract before being planted—has led many farmers to grow tobacco on a larger scale.

“It (contract selling) takes away a lot of the risk,” Shaw said. “And we’ve got the infrastructure—land and equipment,” including high-cost bulk curing barns.

Harvest forecasts predict an increase of 33 pounds per acre of tobacco, for a yield of 2,260 pounds per acre in the state.

Even with the 24 percent increase in plantings, the 2006 tobacco crop is down considerably from the 1997 acreage of 12,177. In the late 1970s and 1980s, tobacco quotas in the county totaled as high as about 15,000 acres. With the exception of the 2001 crop, which showed a slight increase from the previous year, tobacco acreage in the county has shown a steady decline. Cuts in the quota—the number of acres and the amount of tobacco a grower is allowed to grow and sell—drove many owners of small to medium-sized allotments to sell out to growers of larger acreages.

Some predicted that the quota buyout, which became law in October 2004, along with the elimination of price supports, would mean the end of large-scale tobacco farming. Farmers were paid $10 per allotment pound, spread over a 10-year period. The 2006 crop report, used by agriculture businessmen and others to help determine future markets for farm products, reveals a reduction of more than 50 percent in sweet potato plantings in the county. Cotton acreage showed a slight decline.

For this crop year, farmers reported that they have 1,032 acres planted in sweet potatoes compared to 2,344 acres last year. A total of 8,189 acres of cotton was planted in the 2005 crop year compared 7,448 acres this year.

Corn, along with soybeans, considered to be second only to tobacco as cash crops in the county increased in 2006 with 30,668 acres growing compared to 28,762 acres in last year’s crop. The soybean crop this year saw an increase of more than 10,000 acres, with 61,747 acres planted.

A total of 1,012 farmers are growing corn this year; last year, 952 growers reported they had corn crops. The number of farmers planting soybeans in 2006 is 1,468 while 1,534 reported soybean crops last year.