Trends in U.S. Tobacco Farming

by Thomas Capehart

Tobacco farms are becoming fewer in number and U.S. tobacco acreage has declined since the 1950s. This article provides a snapshot of tobacco farm characteristics as of 2002. The number of farms growing tobacco in the United States dropped from 512,000 in 1954 to 56,977 in 2002, with 37,013 classified at tobacco farms, that is, tobacco constituted at least 50 percent of their sales. All farms producing tobacco averaged about 7.5 acres in 2002, compared with 9.0 acres in 1997. Tobacco farms averaged only 62 acres of harvested cropland and 175 acres of total farmland.

Keywords: Tobacco, farm characteristics, grower characteristics, farm size, tobacco acreage

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• Trends in U.S. Tobacco Farming

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U. S. Tobacco Import Update 2005/06

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