Over the course of the next year, we plan to highlight crops and farms across North Carolina.

Agriculture is the number one industry in NC with over 45,000 farming operations (96% of these are small family operations farming, on average, 184 acres per farm) and farm receipts from 2022 of over $13.28 B, making NC the ninth highest value nationally (USDA-NASS, 2022a). Agriculture contributes $103.2 B to the NC economy and the agricultural industry supports more than 736,000 jobs over eight million acres of farmland (Ford, 2023). NC’s horticultural specialty industry has 20,655 operations, with wholesale receipts totaling over $11.9 M (USDA-NASS, 2019) NC’s agriculture (including horticultural crops) and greenspace is threatened by a wide variety of pests, including insects, diseases, weeds, and vertebrate pests. Producers and land managers are required to spend considerable time and resources to manage these pests, with the potential for significant risk to profitability, human health, and the environment.

North Carolina ranks first in the United States in sweet potato production and poultry and eggs; second in hogs & pigs, turkeys; third in fresh market tomatoes and trout, fourth in fresh market strawberries (by value), fresh market cucumbers & broilers; fifth in peanuts, cucumbers, and bell peppers; sixth in pumpkin, squash, catfish, and livestock, dairy & poultry and eggs; seventh in aquaculture, upland cotton, and watermelons; and eighth in blueberries, apples, and chickens (excluding broilers) (NCDA & CS 2020).