CRISP — Farmers, agricultural officials and political leaders called for swift state and federal action Tuesday in response to drought conditions now affecting 60% of North Carolina.
“We’ve had what meteorologists call a ‘flash drought,’” said Bob Etheridge, a former congressman who now serves as the state executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. “Which means temperatures soar and rain stops. We’ve had 90-degree-plus weather for like 15, 16 days and no rain in some places for over a month. That is a recipe for disaster for farmers.”
Etheridge, speaking at Tuesday’s news conference at Varnell Farms, said that despite some recent rain the corn crop across the state is “pretty well gone.”
“The tobacco crop is probably going to be hurt dramatically, and a lot of other crops are going to be short just because of this drought that is not yet over,” he said. “Just remember that, it is not yet over.”
U.S. Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., said he agrees.
“It’s not just a matter of one rain coming is going to take away the threat of drought nor the damages and the losses that have already occurred,” said Davis, who represents North Carolina’s 1st House District in Congress.
Calling agriculture “our number one industry,” Davis, the vice ranking member of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, said, “It’s imperative that we move forward in calling for an emergency declaration.”
He said he’d been in contact with the governor’s office and federal agricultural officials to push for a disaster declaration easing assistance to farmers, including loans and crop insurance.
“We have to signal to our agriculture community … that we hear you,” Davis said.
Etheridge, noting that one in five jobs in North Carolina depends on agriculture, said the current drought was the state’s worst “since about 2002 or 2003.”
According to federal drought data on the website drought.gov, 56.5% of the land in North Carolina is in a state of moderate drought — including all of Nash and Edgecombe counties — with another 42.3 percent “abnormally dry.” About 5 million state residents are currently living in drought conditions, the website reports.
Through June, 18.32 inches of precipitation had been measured at the Upper Coastal Plain Research Station in Edgecombe County, well below the 35-year average of 21.03 inches, according to data from the N.C. State Climate Office. At Rocky Mount-Wilson Airport, accumulation through June 30 was 1.64 inches below the average since 2001, Climate Office data stated.
Davis used Tuesday’s press conference to again call for advancing the $1.5 trillion, 10-year U.S. House Farm Bill, which passed the Republican-controlled Agriculture Committee in May, by a 33-21 vote, with bipartisan support from Davis and three other Democrats.
The bill would increase safety net payments for some commodity crops, expand eligibility for disaster assistance and increase funding for specialty crops and dairy farmers, according to news reports.
It faces an uncertain future, however, largely due to opposition from Democrats opposed to cuts in SNAP payments and nutritional benefits. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program, falls under the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A U.S. Senate version of the farm bill remains in committee.
“I would be surprised if we get anything before the end of September,” Davis said.
Etheridge noted the limitations of farm insurance payments.
“When we’re talking about insurance, it’s a great program; but unfortunately, it’s not 100 percent of what a farmer spends. Any producer does not get 100 percent back,” Etheridge noted.
Shane Varnell, head of the Edgecombe County Farm Bureau who counts peanuts, sweet potatoes, tobacco and soybeans among his crops, agreed.
Noting the pressures of falling commodity prices, drought and ongoing, grinding inflation, Varnell said, “If I’m drawing insurance, I’m going broke. Any farmer who’s drawing insurance, he might could do it for one year, and get out and maybe pay his debt and maybe carry over some debt to the next year and hope for a better year, but if you continue to thrive on insurance and that’s what you’re drawing, you’re not going to last.”
Varnell said there’s been some relief in fertilizer prices, “but as far as the other inputs that we incur, none of them have gone down. Our rents go up every year, our taxes go up every year.”
Davis and Etheridge then toured several drought-beset farms around Edgecombe County.
“We’re getting hit everywhere,” said Kevin Webb of Webb Farms in Crisp, standing next to acres of withered and worm-plagued corn. “This is just a small piece of it.”
His tobacco has been “slow growing,” Webb said. “The fertilizer is still under it. … Usually, we have to worry about putting in more fertilizer by now; but this year, we don’t have to.”
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