Tobacco is No Longer Virginia' Top Cash Crop

Source from:  Friday November 25, 2005 Richmond, Va. (AP) 11/28/2005

Tobacco, historically Virginia's top cash crop, has lost its crown to soybeans. Last year, soybeans generated $124.3 million in cash receipts for the state's farmers, according to new figures from the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service. Tobacco dropped to No. 2, with $112.9 million in cash receipts. The toppling of tobacco, which was planted by Virginia settlers in the 1600s, did not come as a surprise. Tobacco acreage has contracted in Virginia for decades. Production, in the meantime, has spiraled downward in recent years for several reasons, including lower U.S. smoking rates, the federal tobacco-quota buyout and cheaper leaf from countries like Brazil and Africa. By comparison, in 1997, Virginia farmers brought in about $191 million in cash receipts from 53,000 acres of tobacco. That year, soybeans generated about $99 million in cash receipts. By 2004, however, tobacco production had dropped to about 30,000 acres. John Boyd, a Mecklenburg County tobacco grower and president of the National Black Farmers Association, says there has been a sharp decline in the number of people "who are growing a little tobacco." "They are saying, 'I am just not going to do this anymore."' But there's more to come, he said. With this year's elimination of the government's tobacco price-support program, Boyd and others expect to see even more decreases in production. Cash receipts from tobacco actually rose last year from $89.5 million in 2003, though they have dropped in prior years. Overall, the long-term decline in tobacco production and a solid year for soybeans in 2004 were enough to propel soybeans to No. 1. "We finally got to that breaking point, where one of the other crops took (tobacco) over," said Kevin Harding, a statistician for the statistics service. Soybean's cash receipts rose almost 50 percent last year from $83.4 million in 2003. Soybean production rose from 480,000 acres in 2003 to 530,000 acres in 2004. "We had excellent growing conditions, especially after several years of drought," said Dick Atkinson, executive director of the Virginia Soybean Association. It's unlikely that tobacco will regain its position in 2005, officials say. Already, production has dropped this year to about 17,000 acres, and prices are also falling. Some farmers gave up tobacco after Congress ended the Depression-era federal price-support and supply-control program. Tobacco manufacturers financed the $10 billion buyout of U.S. tobacco quotas, essentially government licenses to grow the crop. Enditem