Source:  Hillary Kraus, THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER, 11/17/09

Tobacco growers across the state will vote Thursday on whether to continue a self-assessment program that supports tobacco research.

If the issue is approved, farmers will be assessed 10 cents per 100 pounds of tobacco sold. The Tobacco Research Check-off program began in 1991 and has allotted about $300,000 a year for tobacco-related research and extension projects at N.C. State University.

The law requires a referendum every six years. A two-thirds favorable vote is needed for the assessment to continue.

The check-off passed soundly in 2003, with 92 percent of the 883 statewide growers voting in favor. Cumberland and Moore counties voted in favor by 100 percent.

Gary Priest, the Moore County referendum chairman, said he anticipates the results will be similar.

Priest, who farms 65 acres near Whispering Pines, said he willingly gives to the project as a way for research to continue. The money is collected at buying stations by the N.C. Tobacco Research Commission.

Soil and disease problems are among the issues studied.

"We don't carry the same kind of clout that we used to. But we still need to support research," said Priest, who is 55 and has been farming for more than 30 years.

The federal government stopped funding tobacco research in 1994.

Craven F. Hudson, director of the Moore County Cooperative Extension office, said at one time there were 300 tobacco growers in the county. Today, he estimates there are less than 20.

Since the last vote, the number of tobacco farmers in Robeson County dropped from 150 to roughly 40 farmers, said Everett Davis, the director of the Robeson County center of the state Cooperative Extension Service. Davis said the dramatic drop off is because of less demand for tobacco and the 2004 government buyout.

North Carolina, the country's largest producer of tobacco, was allotted $4billion in payouts to growers and quota holders over the next 10 years. The payments offset the government doing away with the quotas.