NC State Extension Helps Tobacco Growers 

The broad, green leaves growing in fields across eastern North Carolina tell a story that is easily understood by savvy farmers. The size, shape and color are indications of the quality of the crop. They convey information about the maturity of the plants, and the proximity to harvest time.

Deep in the soil there’s another story. These plants have roots that reach down into the past. Their ancestors have grown here for centuries. They have been farmed as a cash crop for more than 400 years.

The plants are tobacco, one of the most important crops in the history of North Carolina and the United States. It is impossible to tell the complete story of the country, or of the state, without these innocuous looking leaves. 

“If you think about all the things that have come from tobacco — jobs and industry — you see how important it has been,” said Bryant Spivey, director of the N.C. Cooperative Extension center in Johnston County and a tobacco education expert. “Think about all that tobacco has done in North Carolina. You could make a case that you can’t tell the history of North Carolina without the history of tobacco just because it’s such an important economic driver.”

It is a history that includes NC State Extension. For decades, researchers, specialists and county agents have helped farmers by disseminating information about best practices for growing the crop and by developing new varieties to improve quality, yield and disease resistance. That legacy continues today, as NC State Extension supports tobacco growers in challenging times.

“Extension works for all farmers in every county across North Carolina, no matter what they’re growing or producing,” Spivey said. “If there’s tobacco production in a county, that’s obviously important to those farmers. We are prepared to help them, to teach them about the latest research and help them be successful, just like we do with tomatoes or cotton or peanuts or cattle and other livestock. Tobacco is still an important economic benefit to our state and country. Farmers that are growing that crop need our help and support.”

Tobacco growing in a field at NC State Extension’s Oxford Tobacco Research Station in Granville County.

Extension agriculture experts also have helped growers transition to other crops or diversify their farms since the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998. With the help of funding from the Golden LEAF Foundation and the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, NC State Extension has helped lessen the burden on growers because of decreased demand for tobacco and uncertainty in the industry. The N.C. General Assembly created the two programs in 1999 and 2000, respectively, to distribute the state’s share of Master Settlement Agreement funds to support tobacco-dependent communities.

A Complex History

Extension’s role in helping people grow tobacco, along with its efforts to help farmers grow something else, sums up the yin and yang nature of the crop.

Tobacco, the major cash crop in the New World, financed the American Revolution. Profits from tobacco founded hospitals and universities. Conversely, its health impacts have made it one of the most controversial crops in history.

Despite a complicated and complex past, tobacco remains a significant crop in the present.

“It’s incredibly important to our farmers that are still growing tobacco,” said Maggie James, an NC State Extension tobacco specialist. “It is an economically viable crop, although our growers do face more challenges than they have in previous years.”

North Carolina ranks first in the nation in tobacco production with an annual harvest of more than 260 million pounds, about 60% of the U.S. total. The majority is flue-cured tobacco, the type used in cigarettes.

“Flue-cured tobacco in the U.S. is now basically North Carolina,” said NC State Extension economist Jeff Dorfman. “There’s a little in Virginia, there’s a little in Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, but all the other states together are way less than North Carolina.”

The annual NC State Tobacco Field Day brings growers, industry professionals and Extension experts to Granville County to learn from the latest research.

While North Carolina is No. 1, production is well down from the peak years in the mid-1950s, when the state’s farmers were producing nearly 1 billion pounds of tobacco leaf annually. Demand declined after the Surgeon General’s report in 1964 linked cigarettes to lung cancer, and continued to fall after the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998 restricted tobacco advertising and marketing.

In 2004, the Tobacco Transition Payment Program ended the federal government’s marketing quota and price support system. The buyout expedited the transition of smaller farms to alternative crops. Over the past 20 years, tobacco production has declined more than 13%. There are fewer tobacco farms, and those that remain have to farm more acres to make a profit. 

“It’s a lot harder to make a living,” said Bryce Berryhill, a multi-generational tobacco farmer and graduate of NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “You have to be on top of your game consistently in order to make money. Nowadays you can’t make it on 20, 30 acres like you could 30 years ago. When I was 10 or 12 years old, I don’t think we had much more than maybe 100 acres. We’ve tripled it in my lifetime.”

Many such farms also have diversified, becoming less dependent on their annual tobacco crop. Berryhill said his farm has beef cattle, corn, wheat and soybeans. The crops and livestock vary, but that is a typical setup.

“A diversified farm in eastern North Carolina might have tobacco, sweet potatoes, cotton, soybeans, corn and wheat, and hogs and cattle,” Spivey said. “It takes all those things to make a profitable farm.”

Most of North Carolina’s tobacco farms are in the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont, primarily in the counties along the I-95 corridor. 

“It is an extremely important crop in Wilson County,” said Norman Harrell, director of the county Extension center and the field crop agent. “It is the highest-value crop we have. The acres now are not where they were at their peak, but we still grow roughly 8,000 acres of tobacco. We are one of the top tobacco-producing counties in the state year in and year out.”

Tobacco remains among the top 10 commodities in North Carolina, coming in at No. 8 in rankings by farm income. It can be profitable on a per-acre basis, surpassing other row crops including corn and soybeans.

“The rankings usually go by dollars of sales value and that’s a bad way to measure tobacco’s importance,” Dorfman said. “A farm might make 10 times as much profit on 100 acres of tobacco as on 1,000 acres of corn.”

Daisy Ahumada, NC State assistant professor and Extension field crop pathology specialist, answers questions about her tobacco pathology trials at the 2025 Tobacco Field Day.

High input costs, labor costs, price fluctuations, an uncertain market, and the need for significant acreage are barriers to profitability. Most of the tobacco grown in the U.S. is exported, so fluctuations in international prices and the threat of retaliatory tariffs create more uncertainty in the industry.

“We certainly need the export markets,” Dorfman said. “If China stopped buying American tobacco, our growers would be in big, big trouble.”

A poor crop in any given year also can be disastrous. That’s why Extension conducts research that agents in counties that grow tobacco can use to help growers.

“A lot of farmers are struggling, but they continue to persevere,” James said. “They continue to do it because it truly is a lifestyle. Being a tobacco farmer is something that they put a lot of pride in. It’s something that many of them have had passed down to them for generations and generations. We’re an industry that is continuing to ebb and flow as we face changing markets. That’s where our research and Extension programs come in. We’re incredibly fortunate to have such a great Extension program in North Carolina that allows our NC State specialists to coordinate very closely with our county-level agents who are working with these farmers every day. It’s a wonderful program that flows in both directions and allows us to all work very collaboratively and continue to adapt to a changing tobacco industry.”

Growing a Better Crop

Much of the research takes place at the Oxford Tobacco Research Station in Granville County. 

“We’ve got the tobacco research station here because Granville Wilt, which is a major disease of tobacco, was found in Granville County,” said Mikayla Berryhill, Extension area agent for field crops in Granville and Person counties. “The research station was developed around finding solutions.” 

Researchers conduct field trials in areas including breeding and genetics, fertilization, insect resistance, weed management, and low-nicotine and high-nicotine varieties.

A highlight of the program is the annual NC State Tobacco Field Day. Growers, industry professionals and Extension experts attend to learn from the latest research.

“People might know that NC State does research but may not really understand what it looks like,” said James, who gave a presentation on pesticide residue testing at this year’s field day on July 22. “They can come out and see we’re growing tobacco and we’re able to manipulate our practices and be able to help our farmers in North Carolina understand a little bit better.”

Research plots at NC State Extension’s Oxford Tobacco Research Station in Granville County.

Tobacco is an ancient crop, but it is susceptible to modern-day issues — heat, cold, rain, soil issues, pests, diseases. At the field day, researchers give presentations on how they are working to find solutions.

“Our main objective is to showcase the research that goes on at NC State, and to allow tobacco stakeholders, be it industry professionals, growers or Extension agents, just to come in and see what we have in the field, what we’re actively doing,” James said. “There are pieces that are unique to the management of tobacco that make our research a little more unique. And as researchers, we really have to understand those nuances very fluently.”

Randy Whitt, a tobacco grower in Caswell and Person counties, attended his first field day this year, looking for information to improve his crop.

“I’m trying to see what I can learn,” he said. “We all have issues with certain things and every year it’s a different curveball, so I’m just trying to see if we can stay ahead of it.”

Field days also benefit Extension agents, giving them information to pass on to growers. Kimberly Webb has been getting questions from tobacco growers in Wake County on the use of a specific fungicide and about how pesticide residue affects leaf tissue. Both are subjects of field trials at the Oxford research station and were discussed at the field day.

“It’s nice to see that the college is doing research that is addressing questions directly relevant to my farmers, and also helping educate me on how to answer those questions for them,” Webb said. “As county Extension agents our role is to be that conduit between the university and the farmer. This is what makes the field day so important. The county agents can see the research, interact with the campus faculty, and then bring that information back to the growers. It’s a really nice model.”

Even veteran Extension experts like Spivey attend field days so they can pick up important information to pass on to growers. 

“I’ve been an Extension agent for 31 years, and I’ve done numerous research projects and on-farm tests, but I’m still learning about tobacco,” Spivey said. “You’re never finished learning. Farmers very much are lifelong learners. They have to be because things don’t stay the same. Tobacco production is hard work. It’s hard work.” 

A Labor of Love

Tobacco farming is a specialized and labor-intensive process. Farmers start out with seed in February. Harvest typically begins in July and continues into October. The plant requires additional practices like topping and suckering that, like harvesting, is most frequently done by hand.

It is very hard work, but it is a labor of love. Farmers are proud of what they do.

“The Wilson tobacco market opened in 1890, so we’ve been growing it for a long time,” Harrell said. “It’s been a good crop that fits well in our system and it’s a crop that growers know how to do. If you ask a farmer most of the time, instead of just saying that he’s a farmer, he’s going to say, ‘I’m a tobacco farmer.’ That’s how he would describe himself.”

NC State Extension tobacco specialist Maggie James gives an update on pesticide residue testing at the 2025 Tobacco Field Day.

They are proud of what they grow. North Carolina tobacco remains in demand around the world because of the quality of the crop.

“Our tobacco is well known for the quality, for the taste profile,” Mikayla Berryhill said. “We have red soil. Other countries that grow tobacco, like Brazil, have mostly sandy soils. They can get a lot of yield, but they don’t get that flavor profile. Our red soil holds nitrogen in the soil for longer. We get a completely different taste profile, and that’s what those companies want us for.”

They are proud of the role their crop has played in the history of the country and the state.

“From the beginning, tobacco has stimulated our economy,” James said. “Roads have been built, schools have been built, hospitals, colleges. If the colonies did not have tobacco, we very well may not have gained our independence from England. That’s the economic importance that it had from the beginning. And it continues to stimulate our economies. 

“A lot of people take pride in that it is not only a crop, it’s not only an economic driver, but it is a preservation of history in a sense. And I think as long as people are going to use tobacco products, if that’s something they choose to do as adults, I think North Carolina will be growing tobacco and Extension will be there to support them.”