University of Georgia

Farmers or anyone else interested in Georgia’s tobacco crop
should attend the “Georgia Statewide Tobacco Meeting: Planning
for TSWV in 2006” Nov. 29 in Tifton, Ga.

The meeting will be at the University of Georgia Rural
Development Center. Registration starts 9:15 a.m.

Farmers will get “the most up-to-date information available from
university research and extension work to reduce the losses they
have suffered from tomato spotted wilt virus,” said J. Michael
Moore, a UGA Cooperative Extension tobacco agronomist.

TSWV is a deadly, yield-reducing disease carried by tiny insects
called thrips. It hurts Georgia tobacco and other farm crops
each year. But it was especially hard on tobacco this year,
infecting 35 percent of the crop statewide and cutting yields by
as much as 18 percent.

About 1,000 farmers grew tobacco in Georgia in 2004. Then the
federal government ended the Depression-era tobacco quota
program that helped keep prices level. This year, about 500
farmers grew tobacco in Georgia.

Hit by disease and heavy rains, this year’s disastrous crop may
sway more farmers to quit next year, Moore said. The rest will
have to fight TSWV for the yields they’ll need to get contracts
from tobacco companies.

The Tifton meeting will help them do that. To learn more about
it, call your local UGA Cooperative Extension office at 1-800-
ASK-UGA1. Or call (229) 386-3006.