But developing a diversified farm plan could help farmers transition to other crops. Halili's complex analytical software is likely to be used by Extension agents rather than farmers, he says. His prototype was developed for 5,472 acres of Pittsylvania County. Now, with a farm store and wholesale trade, their fruit and vegetable income actually exceeds that of tobacco. But there have been trade-offs.
Vegetables require a lot more labor and management.
They are looking to buy up other tobacco quotas but keeping up their diversification on the family farm. Researchers have developed a means of genetically altering tobacco to produce the base ingredients for human pharmaceuticals. Tobacco plants could be factories to produce human enzymes and proteins. Maintaining tobacco Some farmers will stay in tobacco because of the investment they've made in tobacco-specific equipment, because of its profitability, because that's what they know. But Extension agents see many leaving and others buying up their land and quotas.