US: Tobacco Farmers No Longer Getting Subsidy Payments

Source from:  ABC 13 Lynchburg 12/09/2014

Tobacco Farmers are now fully on their own when it comes to making money.　The ten-year transitional period from government support to the free market ended with their last payment in November.　First generation farmers said the program ending will have no effect on what they do every day.

Chris Haskins has worked in the Tobacco fields since he was kid.　He said he got a small amount of money over the past ten years as part of a government subsidy.　But he said he's not worried about losing the extra money.

"As for myself, I was only a small person when the tobacco buyout deal, so we've been operating solely on what I make each year," Haskins said. "So really, I don't think it will have much of an effect on me.　There's just going to be a stronger emphasis on quality."

Quality is now the key to surviving in the tobacco growing industry.　For the past decade, many tobacco farmers got compensation to make up for the tobacco they couldn't sell. That was all part of the buy-out plan to transition farmers out of government support and let them sell on their own.

"There's a lot of us in our generation that we didn't own a lot of quota, or leased quota," said tobacco farmer Robert Mills Jr.　"So the tobacco transitional payment really didn't affect us that much.　We either got a little bit of money or nothing at all."

Robert Mills Jr. invested the money he got into expanding his farm.　He bought cattle.　Over the past ten years, he never had to rely on the subsidy money neither.　But he knows, some that have.　

"Over a ten year period, you may become a little more relaxed in your operations, knowing that you have that check coming.　Now that you don't, you have to evaluate your operations.　Is tobacco where you want to stay?　Is it still profitable for you to stay in business?　Do you need to diversify into other aspects of agriculture like we have." Enditem