Farmers Get Update on Upcoming Tobacco Season

Source from:  Dailysoutherner.com 01/18/2010

Three N.C. State University tobacco experts helped farmers Wednesday better prepare themselves for their tobacco harvests for this upcoming year. At the regional tobacco production meeting at the Rocky Mount Farmers Market, Dr. Loren Fisher, a tobacco agronomist, Dr. Mina Mila, a disease specialist, and Dr. Hannah Burrack, who specializes in the insects that affect tobacco production, all gave farmers from Edgecombe, Nash, Northampton, Halifax and Wilson counties an idea of some of the things they will have to deal with this growing season.

Burrack and Mila noted that federal regulations would potentially affect farmers, depending on their methods of pesticide and disease-prevention for their crops. Burrack said that the Food and Drug Administration, which last year was given regulatory control over tobacco, had imposed an indefinite restriction on the approval of new pesticides. Also, Mila told the crowd of more than 200 farmers that, before they are allowed to fumigate their crops to prevent disease, the federal government is requiring them to submit a "fumigation management plan" in order to take action. Fumigation is the process of using smoke or steam in order to rid a plant or object of pestilence, insects or disease. And, as the cost of petroleum and fuel continues to rise, Fisher suggested to farmers that they adjust their tactics when spraying fertilizers and defoliants onto their crops this upcoming year. In 2008, Fisher pointed out that farmers had cost savings of around 34 percent per acre, $450 to $290, when they used a urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) compound around their transplant period as opposed to a calcium nitrate compound. In 2009, the cost savings from using a similar tact was around 40 percent, Fisher added. "You (also) have more options to fertilize your crop," he told farmers, if they would avoid using a phosphorus-based compound in the beginning of their transplant period for their plants. Edgecombe County Extension Director Art Bradley had commented earlier that, while the wet weather this fall and winter had delayed the cotton and soybean harvests, the spring and summer proved to be good for farmers' tobacco harvests. Fisher said, though, that the ideal weather this past year had caused plants statewide to have some potassium deficiency. Burrack added that there had been cutworm damage across the state due to the "cold, wet weather we had back in the spring" last year. As with a lot of things aimed at improving yields and protecting crops, all three of the tobacco specialists said the steps the farmers could take with their harvests is to invest more money into their operation. Mila said that the source of a debilitating root disease, called black root rot, develops and is contained within trays that farmers use to grow their small tobacco sprouts before they are transplanted in the field. "You need to throw away those trays" and spend money on new ones if black root rot develops in their plants, she implored to the farmers. Even with the use of fumigators and steaming inside the greenhouses, black root rot "can be quite devastating, because you realize it too late" that the sprouts are diseased before they are ready to be planted, she added. She also told the farmers to make sure that, if their plants are diseased, to seek out experts like Bradley and others to correctly diagnose their problems before they spend money to fix it. Enditem