North Carolina Agriculture 2024
In partnership with North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
From the majestic mountains to the coastal plains, North Carolina agriculture can be described in one word: diverse. The state’s nearly 43,000 farms produce top commodities and crops for North Carolina and beyond, with the typical farm averaging 190 acres in size. Farmland makes up 8.1 million acres of the state’s land.
An agricultural leader in the U.S., North Carolina ranks in the top five for several commodities, including sweet potatoes, turkeys, hogs and pigs, cucumbers, broilers, peanuts, upland cotton, bell peppers and burley tobacco. But more than crops and commodities, North Carolina agriculture encompasses everything from agricultural education to agribusiness and value-added foods, agritourism, aquaculture, innovation, research, food safety and sustainability.