Tobacco Grants Aid Area Farmers

Source from:  By Jason Hardin Staff Writer  11/01/2005

One word could hold the key to profits for farmers looking to get out of the tobacco-growing business. Plastics. Or "plasticulture," to be precise. More farmers may get the opportunity to try the new technique aimed at helping crops mature early and grow plentifully, thanks to an influx of nearly $500,000 in tobacco money to local agricultural efforts. Plasticulture involves stretching black plastic above the ground where the plants grow. The plastic keeps the soil warmer and provides other benefits that can help dramatically increase yields, said Keith Baldwin of N.C. A&T's cooperative extension program. That, in turn, can help growers find alternatives to the tobacco crop. Baldwin said the new techniques can pay off for farmers. "We're helping growers become higher-tech," he said. "A lot of people have learned how to do this and are making more money because of it." The N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund recently awarded the project a $112,000 grant, one of two grants that went to efforts based in the area. The second grant, for $300,000, went to the Piedmont Land Conservancy, which envisions putting it toward preserving a 370-acre organic tobacco farm in Alamance County. The money would help pay for the purchase of development rights on the Iseley family farm, preserving it as agricultural land forever, said Charlie Brummitt, the conservancy's executive director. The farm also has organic greenhouses, a cattle operation and a market. The property is significant because it is in a rapidly growing area and it stretches along the Haw River, which serves as a source of drinking water, Brummitt said. Preserving land like the Iseley farm helps ensure that "we have local food and local farmers far into the future," he said. The grant isn't enough on its own to make the entire purchase, said Brummitt, but the group will work on finding additional funding. The grants come out of a pool of money created in the massive 1998 settlement between 46 states and four cigarette manufacturers. Enditem