USDA projects costs of production continue to rise.
Rising costs of fertilizer and equipment could cause long-lasting problems for the agriculture industry, a fifth-generation farmer said in an interview.
“It’s going to be a very expensive year for farmers,” the dairy farmer said. “We are going to the field with very expensive tools in our toolbox. Fertilizer right now is double what it was a year ago. Fuel is over double what it was. Some chemicals are dramatically increased as much as three to four times.”
According to the American Farm Bureau, the cost of fertilizer alone has risen more than 300 percent in some areas.
Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus export vast quantities of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers around the globe, and the war in Ukraine has disrupted that trade. A senior analyst for the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C. said, “The fertilizing issue can impact every farmer everywhere in the world, and cause declines in the production of food.”
The production of nitrogen fertilizers requires natural gas, and the price of that ingredient has also skyrocketed.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For Secretary Vilsack to seek God’s direction as he leads the USDA.
- For officials in the Farm Service Agency as they provide programs and services to U.S. farmers.
- For wisdom for the president and his administration as they evaluate the nation’s food supply.
Sources: Department of Agriculture, Fox News, National Geographic
