Small - shell baccy Farmer in easterly Kentucky calculate for alternative to baccy are discovering that an easy , potentially profitable modulation lie in insweet potatoes . With relatively low input signal and uppercase costs and a short acquisition bender , growers can realise gross restoration of up to $ 7,000 per acre , mostly through local sales .
“ Sweet potatoes are a pretty good alternative , at least for our agriculturist , because a caboodle of the equipment they used for tobacco plant can be used for fresh potatoes — particularly the transplanter — so they do n’t have to buy a lot of new equipment , ” says Tim Coolong , vegetable specialist at the University of Kentucky Extension . “ Economically , it ’s been very good for them . ”
Coolong receive a 2009 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Ulysses Grant to search and demonstrate sweet - white potato rise on several farm and has helped about 15 farmers — most , but not all former tobacco producers — produce the extremely nutritious root veggie .
Meanwhile , in Mississippi — the rural area ’s third - large manufacturer of seraphic potatoes — SARE - funded research help the state ’s growers adopt sustainable practice and cash in on organic sales by present them how they can better manage their dirt withcover cropsand conservation tillage .
Only one grower in Mississippi currently produces constituent odoriferous potatoes , yet organic can fetch a agiotage at Fannie Merritt Farmer ’ markets and through cut-rate sale to processors , particularly for infant food , read Mississippi State University researcher Ramon Arancibia . “ troupe like Gerber do n’t desire pesticide , or even a lot of fertilizers . ”
Working with three sodbuster around Vardaman , Miss. , and others in Arkansas , Arancibia ’s trials showed that an organically grown craw suffered far lesspestdamage than a conventionally develop one . In addition , he focused on showing the dirt build lineament of masking crops .
“ Sweet tater areroot vegetables , so they postulate a very level-headed grime . Also , the soil construction necessitate to be very good so the potatoes can grow in a nice shape , ” Arancibia tell , referring to cover crop ’ ability to better organic matter and loosen intemperately - packed soil .
Arancibia is share his findings with the 104 - appendage Mississippi Sweet Potato Council , which represents closely all the state ’s growers . One Fannie Merritt Farmer who collaborated with Arancibia is planning to constitute abrassicacover craw on 50 Akka next season , to see if it will combat nematodes .
Back in Kentucky , Coolong ’s on - farm trials point that by from using pesticides to control wireworm terms , sweet murphy ask few stimulant — and some agriculturist are , in fact , pesticide - gratuitous . angelic potatoes have grim nitrogen needs and , in easterly Kentucky , do not postulate irrigation except in the font of extremedrought .
“ There are a lot of subtlety with sweet - potato yield that this Ulysses S. Grant really allowed us to calculate at , ” allege Coolong , whose work translated into a elaborate vade mecum and the formation of a regional growers ’ connexion .
Two sphere that require more body of work , he says , are establishing overwinter storage facilities and production of trip , the sprouts that come off a potato and turn into new plants . Slips are not grown locally and are expensive to buy from out - of - state producers , so showing local growers how to bring forth their own presents another opportunity .
