NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1971 SESSION

CHAPTER 1056

SENATE BILL 326

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR RESEARCH STUDIES AND EXTENSION EDUCATION ON BREEDING, CULTURE, PEST CONTROL, PROCESSING AND IMPROVED SEED QUALITY IN SOYBEANS AND FEED GRAINS.

Whereas, soybeans are an important and growing source of cash farm income in North Carolina, cash income from this crop having increased 163 percent from $20 million in 1959 to $53 million in 1969; and

Whereas, there is a rapidly growing demand for the oil and protein from soybeans to meet the food and nutritional needs of the world so that a rapid growth in world soybean production will occur; and

Whereas, feed grain crops are a major and growing direct source of cash farm income to North Carolina farmers and provide an essential base for North Carolina's growing livestock and poultry industries; total cash farm income from these sources having increased by 94 percent from $338 million in 1959 to $657 million in 1969; and

Whereas, soybeans and feed grains are suitable for growing on a large percentage of the cropland of North Carolina and provide an opportunity for increased farm income throughout the State; and

Whereas, increased production of soybeans and feed grains will stimulate secondary increases in agricultural income in North Carolina, both through increased livestock and poultry production and through an increase in the volume of marketing and processing services rendered by agricultural industries after these products leave the farm; and

Whereas, realization of the potential for increased production of soybeans and feed grains depends critically upon the development through research and the dissemination through extension of knowledge on high performance varieties and cultural practices and improved disease and insect control techniques suited to North Carolina production conditions so that North Carolina farmers may maintain and improve their competitiveness relative to farmers in other parts of the United States and the world; and

Whereas, the resources needed for these specialized research and extension activities extend beyond presently available resources in terms of manpower, equipment and operating funds of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station and the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service; Now, therefore,

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund of the State to the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station the sum of $52,400 and to the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service the sum of $47,000 in each of the two fiscal years of the biennium beginning July 1, 1971 and ending June 30, 1973; with these sums to become a part of the continuing "A" Budget of these State agencies.

Sec. 2.  The above named agencies shall handle and coordinate the administration and expenditure of all funds appropriated by this action, and for the purposes herein designated shall be accounted for and reported to the fiscal and financial system of the agency to which the appropriation is made as herein set forth.

Sec. 3.  This act shall be in full force from and after its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 21st day of July, 1971.