By Leanne Cloudman

Staff reporter

lcloudman@yadkinripple.com

In what is being hailed as the first-ever State of Agriculture address, North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler did not attempt to sugarcoat the economy, nor the hard work facing the state’s farmers. He reminded the audience that farmers have always faced hard work, and would continue to meet the challenges they face in our uncertain economy.

“North Carolina is one of the agriculture states, “ he said. “Our products are not only in demand here, but also overseas.”

He believes that North Carolina needs to continue to find additional ways to entice the young farmers into farming and to support small local projects that will support the diversity in agriculture and agribusiness that will be needed in the future. The possible future production of various bio-fuels is an exciting possibility, as well as an increase in organics, he said. He suggested that the small farmer find a niche that will answer the needs of the family housewife.

Though he voiced concern regarding the loss of family farms due to estate taxes, he believes the decrease in the construction of new homes may help increase the interest in preserving family farms.

“I would shudder to think what the economy of this state would be like if we didn’t have this stable agriculture and agribusiness economy that has sustained us for so long,” he said.

Farming is still the largest industry in North Carolina with over 48,000 farms.

Underlining his positive comments, he praised the success of “Got to be NC,” which is the marketing campaign created by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. The program promotes farm products through education and tourism initiatives and created www.ncfarmfresh.com, a website to further direct the public to on how to take advantage of the farm products grown in North Carolina.

He acknowledged the hard hit taken by farmers to the corn crop in 2008 due to the drought, but other crops such as sweet potatoes and soybeans did well.

“As a farmer for 38 years, I’ve seen a lot of hard times,”Troxler said. “We’ve got to get through them poised to take advantage of whatever opportunities there are in the future.”