ALBANY, Ga. (AFX) - The 20th annual Georgia Peanut Tour began Tuesday with a focus on areas that are better known for blueberries and Vidalia onions than peanuts.
During the three-day tour, the 125 participants will visit fields in new production areas such as Appling County, a leader in the state's blueberry industry, and Toombs and Emanuel counties, where farmers are famous for sweet Vidalia onions.
The elimination of a restrictive peanut commodity program in 2002 created opportunities for farmers who previously could not grow peanuts competitively and they have responded.
Tour participants include farmers, researchers and industry representatives, including advertising and public relations people who help promote the sale of one of Georgia's top cash row crops, said Joy Carter, spokeswoman for the Georgia Peanut Commission.
On Wednesday, they'll visit the Toombs County farm of a leading Vidalia onion grower, R.T. Stanley, who uses onions and peanuts in a crop rotation. They'll also visit the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Savannah to see how a major ingredient used in peanut products is processed.
The tour provides a glimpse of the state's peanut crop just before harvest. Sponsors include the peanut commission, the University of Georgia and several industry groups.
Peanut growers have been hurt this year by record-high energy prices and by a drought that has plagued much of the South.
Don Koehler, the commission's executive director, predicted the 2006 crop will be remembered as the most expensive in history because of the high cost of fuel, fertilizer, chemicals, irrigation and other inputs.
With a surplus of peanuts left over from last year, growers responded by planting fewer in 2006 and the drought has reduced the crop even more.
Experts believe the smaller crop will help stabilize the market and reduce a surplus. But spiraling production costs have created uncertainty about how farmers will respond next year.
'The bigger issue is not whether we have enough peanuts out of '06, but what the industry has to do to be sure there are enough peanuts planted in '07 to satisfy all of our needs,' Koehler said. '... They may decide they can't grow anything right now.'
As the nation's largest peanut producer with about 40 percent of the total U.S. crop, Georgia is expected to produce a 1.4 billion-pound crop this year, compared with 2.1 billion pounds in 2005. The size of the entire U.S. crop is estimated at 3.2 billion pounds, 1.6 billion pounds less than last year.
Because of the drought, the U.S. Agriculture Department has already designated 155 of Georgia's 159 counties agricultural disaster areas and the peanut commission has asked Congress for emergency assistance to help growers offset drought losses and energy costs.
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