Hunter Walters, of Bladenboro, participated recently in a week long 2015 NC State Tobacco Short Course in Raleigh. Walters has been growing tobacco with his family for nine years.
During the Tobacco Short Course, 38 participants were schooled in two days of classroom studies on everything from greenhouse production of seedling plants to curing leaf ready for market. The group also spent a day touring several tobacco-related companies or organizations in eastern North Carolina.
“Since the tobacco industry faces continuous change, we need to make sure our younger farmers, their advisors, and other allied industry representatives are able to focus on how to attain efficient quality tobacco production,” says Dr. Bill Collins, the retired director of N.C. State Tobacco Extension programs and co-director of the Tobacco Short Course. Instructors in the short course included N.C. State Extension specialists in agricultural economics, agronomy, biological and agricultural engineering, crop science, entomology, and plant pathology.
The 2015 N.C. State Tobacco Short Course was once again conducted by the North Carolina Tobacco Foundation, in partnership with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University. It was funded with a grant by the North Carolina Tobacco Research Commission from the 10-cent per hundred pounds of tobacco sold via a self-assessment paid at the point-of-sale during the 2014 tobacco-growing season.
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