County losing farm land But crop sales rebounded from 2002 drought

Feb 27, 2009      The Daily Southerner

T. J. Royal

Feb. 27, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Although the U.S. Census of Agriculture said Edgecombe County had one of the highest farm land reduction rates in North Carolina from 2002-07, Edgecombe farmers posted more than $146.3 million in crop sales in 2007.

That's more than a 49 percent rebound from county crop sales in drought-stricken 2002, which totaled $97.8 million.

County Extension Director Art Bradley noted that in 2002, the county's farmers had not just lower yields, but commodity prices on cotton and other crops resulted in lower sales.

The county's top cash crop, tobacco, also had fewer acres planted in 2002, while 2007 had one of the highest tobacco acreage totals out of the previous 10 years, Bradley said.

The county's agriculture sales in 2007 were generated by 300 farmers, according to the Census of Agriculture. That year, 87 of the county's farmers generated the majority of the agriculture income.

Bradley added, though, that within the county, "there's a great number of people" who are provided a supplemental income through farming.

From 1997-2007, Edgecombe lost only 15 farmers, a 5 percent drop. In 1997, $148.7 million in county agriculture sales were recorded.

While the county's sales numbers have rebounded, Bradley said he was "surprised" to learn that the Census of Agriculture reported that Edgecombe had lost 23,741 acres of farm land from 2002-2007. Edgecombe was listed as one of the top five counties in the state for farm land reduction rate.

However, Bradley pointed out that most of that lost land was not actually used to grow crops or raise livestock.

According to the Census's statistics, Edgecombe County saw only a 3.3 percent reduction in actual crop land from 2002-07. There were 103,474 acres of crop land in Edgecombe in 2007, and 106,890 acres in 2002.

The other 20,000 of reported lost acreage in Edgecombe was actually forest land, Bradley said.

For classification purposes, he explained that a tract of land can be counted as farm land if farm production takes place on a portion of it, even if most of it is forest land.

If forest land is used for timber production, Bradley said the land is categorized differently, not as farm land. At the present though, Bradley said he is unsure how the 20,000 farm land acres are being used, since development has been slow in Edgecombe.

He added that "several" Edgecombe County land tracts have been entered into the federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, which plants trees on land in order to improve an area's water quality. He also said that some land has been entered into the federal Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program.

Edgecombe County Manager Lorenzo Carmon has said previously that tracts of county land are being bought for the purpose of hunting or establishing hunting lodges. According to the Census, Edgecombe did have the 10th lowest average acre value for farm land in the state in 2007, at $2,495 per acre.

Overall, the state lost 604,330 acres of farm land from 2002-07, with 8.4 million acres counted in 2007. Of that acreage, the vast majority of it was indeed crop land, just under 577,000 acres.

While Edgecombe lost less than 4 percent of its crop land, the state all together lost 10.5 percent of its crop land. There were 4.9 million acres of crop land in 2007, compared to 5.4 million acres in 2002.

In a statement, N.C. Agriculture Commissioner said the loss of more than 600,000 acres of farm land in North Carolina is "like taking Sampson County off the map.

"When you lose that many acres, it means that not just small farms are losing land, the large farms are shedding land too," Troxler added.

Despite the loss in acreage, the state's agriculture sales increased significantly from 2002-2007. Just under $7 billion in agriculture sales were reported in 2002, while $10.3 billion in sales were recorded in 2007, a 48 percent increase.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0373-32389170

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