4,998 County Leaf Growers Sign Up For Tobacco Buyout

Source from:  gazettevirginian.com 07/08/2005

As the deadline to sign up for tobacco buyout payments passed late last month, USDA Executive Director Kevin Bohon announced that 4,998 county residents signed up to sell their share of the now-defunct quota system. "We're listing it as about 97 percent," Bohon said shortly after the deadline. Passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by President Bush in October, 2004, the buyout will end the Depression-era quota system for tobacco producers. The first checks were expected to be mailed in late June, according to Bohon. The USDA director said they had originally estimated that 93 percent of eligible farmers and quota holders would sign up for the plan. "We were expecting that we would have about five percent who won't enroll because of estate farms where great-granddad died and never left a will," he said. "So with each passing generation, the number of owners of the farms just keeps growing." With a July 15 deadline approaching to report acreage grown in the county this year, Bohon said earlier that his office doesn't know how many acres of leaf will be produced in the county. "Right now, we really don't have any accurate number (of acres grown)," he said. "The farmers are still coming in." Bohon said the buyout doesn't necessarily signal the end of Southside's tobacco heritage. "Even people staying in the tobacco business are signing up to receive buyout payments," he said. "They're just going to be operating without a quota system." Under the buyout plan, quota holders will receive $7 per pound, while growers will receive $3 per pound. Based on figures from the 2002 quota – the year the buyout payments is based on – Halifax County quota holders and producers are expected to receive around $103 million over the next decade. For more information about the buyout program, call Bohon at the Halifax County USDA office at 476-6558. Enditem