1999 Walter Barnard Hill Awards for Distinguished Achievement in University Public Service & Outreach

Darby M. Canberry

The early 1970s heralded the demise of shade tobacco production in Georgia and its relocation to South America where labor cost was lower. When Darby M. Granberry became a University of Georgia faculty member, one of his challenges was to identify a vegetable crop to replace the 6,000-acre, $24-million-a-year tobacco crop, and then to teach farmers how to grow it.

Granberry introduced to the area intensive fresh market tomatoes production using plasticulture (a system of plastic and drip irrigation) and helped sustain a massive expansion of the industry.

Today, the acreage and value of fresh market tomatoes in the old shade tobacco area greatly exceeds that of the crop it replaced. In Decatur County alone (one of the original shade tobacco counties), more than 3,000 acres of tomatoes are grown with plasticulture. Accordingly to the most recent tomato acreage survey, Georgia farmers now grow approximately 5,000 acres of tomatoes (most of the acreage in the old shade tobacco area) in this way. The farmgate value of this acreage exceeds $65 million, nearly triple the value of the tobacco industry this crop replaced.

Granberry developed sulfur recommendations for non-pungent onion production. Since then, Vidalia onion acreage has increased from less than 5,000 acres valued at $17 million to 16,000 acres currently valued at $89 million. In a 1996 letter to the head of the Department of Horticulture, William M. Randle, an associate professor if horticulture (and a College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences onion breeder) summarized the importance of Granberry’s program in the area of sulfur fertility and onion pungency by stating” … his work became the foundation for improved flavor consistency and a major reason for the growth we have experienced since 1989.” Granberry’s recommendations have enabled growers to consistently produce good yields of mild Vidalia onion industry.

Granberry’s involvement in the Tri-State Region Vegetable Project was instrumental in bringing in more than $3 million to develop research and Extension programs in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This project helped farmers throughout the region to develop the knowledge and skills needed to grow and market crops more efficiently and more profitably.

Before Granberry initiated his plasticulture program, there was little, if any, production of vegetables on plastic. Today, pepper, watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, cucumber, eggplant, cabbage, and other vegetables are routinely grown using plasticulture technology. In Georgiam acreage of vegetable crops on plastic now exceeds 20,000. The farmgate value of these vegetables exceeds $130 million. Granberry’s effective Extension program plasticulture technology has helped elevate Georgia’s vegetable industry from a technologically underdeveloped fledgling stage to one of advanced technology and national prominence.