Tough year for tobacco farmers

It’s a tough year for burley-tobacco farmers in North Carolina’s mountain counties.

The costs of fuel, fertilizer and labor are high, while the selling price of burley is lower than what it once was.

This year’s drought has also hurt the current crop.

As the production of burley tobacco in North Carolina has steadily declined in the past ten year, many farmers in the western part of the state are taking federal buyouts and moving into organic vegetables or other crops.