Richmond County Cooperative Extension Director Paige
Burns Clark explains farming tips to local farmers at the Ag-
Innovation Center’s open house in September 2019. Behind
Clark is the high tunnel, a hangar-like structure that gives
crops a plastic "ceiling" and extends their growing period to
help farmers deal with irregular weather patterns.
don’t require the county to provide schools,
roads and services like EMS to the people
that would otherwise live on farm land.
For Clark, changing with the times means
meeting the demand from the growing
population centers in North Carolina, which
prioritizes things like nutrient rich micro
greens and stricter animal welfare standards.
She explained that these micro greens
include broccoli, kale, different lettuces,
radishes, sunflowers and beets, which can
be grown in small trays and sold after about
two weeks of grow time.
These require climate mitigating tools,
but are potentially high value crops in
the future. At the AgInnovation Center
in Ellerbe, Clark has experimented with
using a high tunnel, a tunnel with a plastic
covering that is used to extend the growing
season for certain crops, as well as defend
crops from variations in weather.
“Richmond County has an opportunity to
sort of revitalize it’s agricultural heritage
potentially by looking at supplying some of
this population growth that is happening in
other parts of the state,” Clark said. “I think
it does mean we have to do things a little bit
differently from how it’s been done in the
past because of the changes in weather that
we’ve had.”
Yaklin has been relying on the words of
a marketing professor he once had: as a
farmer, you’re not in the chicken, cow,
tobacco — or any other specific product —
business, you’re in the agriculture business.
Goforth sees the region as “stable” thanks to
the five major companies that operate here,
because they’re in close enough proximity to
local growers that the growers have options.
With the amount of infrastructure these
companies have invested in these locations,
they can’t just pick up and move to the next
location, he said.
“If something happened to one,” Goforth
said, referring to a company failing or
some severe economic instability coming
about, “there’s more of a possibility that
one of the other companies could take over
production.”
Wood said that the outlook for Scotland
County depends on its ability to stave off
large scale urban development.
“If we can avoid development — the 40
houses going on 3 acres of land kind of
development — and don’t have to compete
with those kind of land prices, which will
allow a farmer to quit and the land owner
will still view leasing to another farmer as
best option, agriculture will continue to
hold it’s own in Scotland county,” Wood
said. “Financially, you can’t compete against
development.”
In Anson, Coif said the support from
the local government, industry and
residents who take pride in it, will keep the
agriculture industry thriving.
“This region is a hub for many agriculture
industries, making it stable,” Coif said.
“The commodities may change — we’ve
seen tobacco largely phase out of most
counties — but that’s why diversification is
so important.”
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