Farmers in Tennessee, Georgia increasingly turn backs on tobacco

摘要

The US Department of Agriculture predicted in March that tobacco production in Tennessee and Georgia would take a precipitous drop in 2008. The Prospective Plantings report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the USDA projected plantings in the Peach State at 16,000 acres, down 14% from the 18,500 acres planted in 2007. All but a tiny portion of the Georgia tobacco crop is flue-cured. Tennessee grows dark fire-cured and dark air-cured, but by far the leading type in this state is burley. The report projected that plantings of that type are headed for a sharp drop, from 13,000 acres last year to 11,000 acres this season, a decrease of 15%. The report was based on a survey of farmers conducted the first two weeks of March.