The Florence Times-Daily reports that Alabama farmers plan to increase the amount of cotton they plant this year.

Alabama farmers are expected to plant more than 350,000 acres of cotton this year, an increase of more than 100,000 acres from 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Much of that increase is expected to come in the Tennessee Valley.

Bill Weaver, state director of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, said the sharp increase in cotton acreage is largely the result of higher prices for the crop.