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Crops on a Fast Track: The Specialty Crops Program
Doubtless more than one farmer has been enticed by his or her ability to grow a crop, only to find when the crop is ready for market that there is no market.
The North Carolina Specialty Crops Program was designed to avoid this particular form of agricultural optimism by bringing agronomy and marketing together to benefit North Carolina farmers.
The Specialty Crops Program is a partnership of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The University provides agronomic expertise, while NCDA&CS does the marketing.
The program is designed to fast track the development of specialty crops for North Carolina growers, says Dr. Jeanine Davis, program coordinator and associate professor and North Carolina Cooperative Extension horticulture specialist.
Davis defines a specialty crop as an unusual, high-value niche-market crop or a crop that has not been produced commercially in an area in the past. The program is unusual in that it integrates market development, crop research and extension activities from the time a promising specialty crop is identified. Davis includes among specialty crops enterprises such as crop mazes and value-added products such as goat cheese and ramps. (Click here for more information)
In addition to Davis, Bill Jester, extension associate horticulturalist, and Nick Augostini, NCDA&CS marketing specialist, play prominent roles in the program. While program activities are spread across the state, Jester and Augostini are stationed at the Cunningham Research Station in Kinston, and many program activities take place there. Davis is stationed at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Fletcher.
Among the program's successes is a sweet Asiatic melon called Sprite. Sprite sales totaled $3 million in 2005. Red and yellow seedless watermelons have also been hits. Red melons sales stood at $10 million and yellow at $300,000 in 2005. Cantaloupes have also been big sellers at $16 million in 2005.
The program has been researching lettuce in Eastern North Carolina for several years, which fits nicely with the new demand for lettuce for the Dole Foods plant, and is in the third year of an effort to develop statewide production and markets for medicinal herbs (Click here for more information).
The Specialty Crops Program was created in 1997 with state funding. It expanded considerably from 2001 through 2004 with funding from Golden LEAF; however, Golden LEAF has reduced funding to the program from a high of $300,000 in 2002 to $75,000 in 2005, and will not provide funding to the program in 2006.
As a result, the program is presently focused on four crops: specialty melons and lettuce for Eastern North Carolina, heirloom tomatoes for Western North Carolina, and medicinal herbs statewide.
For More Information:
Jeanine Davis may be reached at 828.684.3562 or jeanine_davis@ncsu.edu
Bill Jester at 252.526.4445 or bill_jester@ncsu.edu
Nick Augostini at 252.527.7125 or nickaugostini@ncmail.net
