Agriculture officials say 2024 has been an awful year for agriculture.
At a recent meeting in the state House, leaders in the agriculture sector described how drought and Helene affected them.
Jimmy Gentry is with North Carolina Grange. He says farmers want to know how the General Assembly will help them after he visited them in Leicester in Buncombe County.
He said, "They've lost crops, they've lost structures, they've lost, in some cases, they've lost lives. Their soil in some places completely washed away right down to the subsoil. Well, you can't regrow a crop without any topsoil."
Some crops have no insurance that can cover them, making it difficult for the farmers to recover.
Agriculture officials want to see significant investment from the state to keep the sector above water.