Discovering NC Agriculture is a social media series focusing on N.C. grown, raised, caught, and made commodities. Originally started in 2025, this series has been renewed to run for another year! Tune in each month to see how an N.C. commodity is grown, harvested, packed for consumer use and more. Learn nutritional value, find fun recipes to try, hear from local chefs who use that product, and other unique commodity facts throughout the series. We look forward to helping you better understand some of our N.C. commodities and how they impact your everyday lives!
Specialty crops are a large part of our state’s agriculture industry, contributing to the diversity that exists across the state. From the mountains to the coast, specialty crops are being researched and developed across our state’s network of eighteen research stations. In fact, Hunter Barrier, Superintendent of the Horticultural Crops Research Station in Clinton and Coordinator of the New & Emerging Crops Program, works with more than thirty different crops each year! In his role, Hunter has a front row seat to all the new and upcoming research across our state’s number one industry.
Specialty crops are defined as high-value crops grown for specialized markets. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this includes “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).” Hunter would also like to add specialty grain crops to that definition. “While we typically think of specialty crops as horticultural crops, I like to expand the definition to include specialty grains,” he said. “There are N.C. growers producing specialty grains such as heirloom rice, special rye varieties, barley for the malting industry, hemp grain and sesame.” Specialty crops are used for food, medicinal purposes, or aesthetic purposes.
Many of the 18 research stations across the state are currently studying a variety of specialty crops, some overlapping and others specialized to certain areas of the state. “Our mission at the Research Stations is to provide a platform for university faculty, Federal government, Extension, Regional Agronomists, and private industry collaborators to conduct research that will make farming more efficient, profitable, and sustainable,” Hunter said. “From Christmas trees, apples, and ornamental crops in Western N.C., to small fruits and tomatoes in the Piedmont, and vegetable crops and muscadines on our coast, our stations are supporting many different specialty crops every day.” So, what’s currently being researched at the Horticultural Crops Research Station in Sampson County? We are so glad that you asked!
For more than fifty years, the Horticultural Crops Research Station in Clinton has been a facility for agricultural research and innovation. Each year, approximately thirty different crops are grown at the station, with nearly 100 individual research trials being conducted with those crops. “Our research portfolio changes as the needs of the industry, the project leaders that we serve, and funding priorities change, but our focus areas are plant breeding, cultural management, weed science, the IR-4 Project, and new and emerging crops,” Hunter said. Some examples of specialty crops currently being studied at the station include: sweet potatoes, cucumbers, melons, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, redbud trees, bell peppers, sesame, fiber hemp and floral hemp. “Historically, the station has also worked with stevia, muscadines, blueberries, and at one time, Christmas trees,” said Hunter. “There is a lot of neat research going on in Clinton. I invite people to stop by and check out all the research being conducted here.”
In recent years, one specialty crop that quickly grabbed the public’s attention is purple carrots. From then until now, the interest in purple carrots, and other crops with the same properties, has skyrocketed as producers and businesses alike look for ways to create natural food colorants. “Purple carrots contain a compound called anthocyanins, which are responsible for red, purple and blue colors that can be extracted from the carrots and used to make natural food coloring,” said Hunter. “The natural red coloring from a purple carrot can be used to make a natural red food colorant and replace synthetic, petroleum derived products, like Red 40.” A hot topic in recent years across the culinary industry, Red 40 is a dye that has been determined to cause potential long-term health risks to those who ingest it. As many producers look for ways to remove the dye from their products, they also being looking for natural ways to keep the bright coloring and eliminate risk to consumers. That’s where specialty crops like purple carrots, beets and others come in. “There are many factors that can impact the quality of the colorant that is produced, which is what we are studying currently at the research station,” Hunter said. “Things such as genetics, growing environment, soil types, planting dates, management practices, and disease control.” An exciting piece of news that Hunter shared is that a natural food colorant company has recently built a facility in our state! “I think this presents a lot of opportunities for our state’s agriculture industry,” he said. “It will be interesting to see where research and development take us in the months and years to come.” The purple carrot research project, still being conducted today, was one of the first projects funded through the New and Emerging Crops Program.
In 2018, the New and Emerging Crops Program was established at the NCDA&CS when legislative language allowed up to half of the funds appropriated for the Bioenergy Research Initiative to be invested in new and emerging crops research. It is a state-funded grant program whose mission is to identify potential new crops and value-added products. “The New and Emerging Crops program provides the agricultural research, market support, and grower education needed to make these crops economically viable,” Hunter said. “Since its inception, the program has invested in over 50 projects researching a wide range of crops, including carrots, seedless muscadines, goumi berries, sesame, and medicinal herbs.” In 2024, the scope of the program evolved again to include ag related technologies. The program is currently in the process of adapting its brand and expanding its scope to account for the change. “The program will soon be rebranded to NCAIR, which stands for North Carolina Agriculture Innovation and Research Program,” said Hunter. “As such, it will invest in a wide range of agricultural research, with new and emerging crops still serving as an important component.”
Local farmers can get involved with both the New and Emerging Crops program as well as crop research in general in a variety of ways. First, Hunter suggests attending as many field days throughout the year as you can. “North Carolina State University and N.C. A&T State University in collaboration with our Research Stations offer many field days each year,” he said. “These field days are excellent opportunities to learn about new crop production and/or see new technologies in the field.” Another way farmers can get involved is to get to know their local Extension agent, crop Extension specialist, and NCDA Regional Agronomist. “We are all here to serve the agriculture industry, so we need to get to know our farmers,” Hunter said. “Those partnerships present opportunities for on farm research collaboration, research grants and more.”
Specialty crops across our state offer many opportunities to farmers, like profitability and the ability to spread risk, as well as bolster our state’s number one industry through diversification. “Part of what makes our agriculture industry so strong is diversification, which is exactly why these specialty crops are so important,” said Hunter. “In fact, specialty crop production coupled with traditional row crops, tobacco, livestock and forestry make North Carolina the third most agriculturally diverse state in the U.S.” We are so thankful for all our research stations that continue to study these crops. Stay tuned all month long as we introduce you to a few of the specialty crops grown across our state and be sure to look for them at farms and research stations near you. In fact, if you find yourself near a research station, you should stop by and talk to the staff members, like Hunter, who are more than willing to help you learn more about our state’s agriculture industry. We look forward to seeing how specialty crop research will continue to evolve in the years to come!
