Tennessee, Kentucky Exceed Expected Tobacco Acreage

Source from:  wbir.com 07/17/2006

Farmers in Tennessee and Kentucky planted more tobacco this year than agriculture analysts had expected. Advertisement Kelly Tiller, an assistant professor at the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center at the University of Tennessee, says the state's farmers increased tobacco acreage from an expected 13,000 acres to 14,000 acres. That was still a drop in acreage from 2004, when farmers planted 17,000 acres of tobacco in Tennessee. Kentucky farmers planted 73,000 acres of tobacco this year, 3,000 acre increase over 2005. Analysts had predicted a decrease in production this year because the federal tobacco quota buyout program ended price supports. But tobacco giant Phillip Morris offered farmers incentives to grow more to meet demand from outside the US. Enditem