![]() Clary said farmers began to replace land used for row crops with catfish ponds and put cattle on the acres that remained. ![]() “Catfish started to grow, because row cropping became so unprofitable, and a lot of farmers quit row cropping and started catfish farming," said Clary, who now serves as the executive director of the Catfish Marketing Association and works part time as an extension agent for Auburn University’s Black Belt aquaculture initiative.Īlabama’s abundant water resources and subtropical climate, coupled with the Black Belt’s soils, which hold water well, made the region the perfect place for the channel catfish to thrive. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter’s embargo on grain sales to the Soviet Union led to the decline of crop prices, and farmers struggled to make ends meet as farm costs like fertilizer and equipment soared. Soybeans also were beginning to come onto the scene. When three Hale County men brought catfish to a few manmade ponds in Newbern in the 1960s, the major agricultural commodities in the area were cotton and dairy and beef cattle, said Jamey Clary, former longtime Hale County extension agent. The Black Belt, named for its dark, heavy soil, has long had an economy based on agriculture. Annual sales to farmers by allied industries are approximately $80 million for feed, utilities, equipment and services. Ranked second to Mississippi in annual catfish sales, Farmers in Alabama sold more than $97 million worth of catfish in 2005, according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service.Īlabama’s three major catfish processors - Southern Pride in Greensboro, Harvest Select in Uniontown and SouthFresh in Eutaw - sell about $170 million worth of catfish to all 50 states and Canada and Europe. “It has allowed the family farms to survive and prosper and is allowing those farms to be passed on to the next generation."Īlabama Catfish Producers Director Mitt Walker said the catfish business is responsible for more than 3,000 jobs in Alabama. “Catfish farming has taken the fiscal peaks and valleys out of many farming operations by providing an additional, sometimes off-season crop, creating additional cash flow on the farm," said Jimmy Carlisle, former director of the Alabama Catfish Producers, a division of the Alabama Farmers Federation. Without it, much of the rural landscape would lie fallow, and many of the towns in the region, which have difficulty attracting industry, would be drying up. Since catfish came to town in the 1960s, experts say, the business has helped to keep farmers on the farm and sustain the Black Belt’s agricultural economy. Most of that impact is in the Black Belt, which contains some of Alabama’s poorest counties. Once just a collection of a few ponds, the catfish industry now contributes between $400 million and $500 million to Alabama. Without our employees contributing to local economy, I don’t know where it would be." “We contribute to the grocery store, banks, hardware stores. “We are one of the reasons that Greensboro has sustained itself and had some growth," Rhodes said. Senior Vice President Randy Rhodes could see the lights of at least nine houses inhabited by someone involved directly or indirectly with the catfish business: The owner of a local Shell station, a member of a Southern Pride harvesting crew, an Alfa insurance agent and an Alabama Power employee, just to name a few. Standing on his back patio in his Greensboro neighborhood, Southern Pride Catfish Co.
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