Author: Brad Doyle
It’s spring planting season for farmers like me, but this year, it’s also a time of growing concern.
The costs of fertilizer and fuel – two key inputs that farmers rely on – are rapidly rising due to the conflict in Iran and its repercussions on global shipping. Some agrochemical suppliers, including my own, have started adding extra fuel surcharges to deliver pesticide products, further increasing farmers’ costs. Arkansas, where I farm, is also in the midst of a severe drought, and if this continues, high diesel fuel prices will greatly increase the cost of pumping water for irrigation.
About one-third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer trade and 20 percent of global oil and liquified natural gas supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has been blockading since the start of the conflict in late February. U.S. ceasefire talks with Iran remain on uncertain footing, and even if the blockade eventually ends, it may take months before supply chain logjams are sorted out.
All of this has created surging production costs for farmers, just as this year’s growing season is getting underway. U.S. prices for some fertilizer products are more than 30 percent higher than they were just one month ago, according to the agriculture intelligence company DTN, and the cost of diesel has reached the highest since 2022. While many farmers like me pre-booked fertilizer last fall, in advance of spring planting, not everyone is as lucky, and most of us will still need to make ongoing fuel purchases to meet our needs this season.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time in recent memory that farmers have been hit by extreme market volatility – in fact, spikes in input costs seem to have become the norm. Trade barriers, supply disruptions, and growing global competition have been squeezing profit margins, especially for row-crop farmers, for at least the past three years. While government programs to aid farmers have helped ease some of the burden, they haven’t been enough to completely cover losses, which means some farmers may be forced to operate below breakeven again this year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
With no end in sight to this volatility, we need to make sure that farmers are prepared to tackle additional long-term risks, so they can continue to produce enough safe, affordable food for everyone. One way to do this is by investing in agricultural research and development (R&D), so that farmers can reduce their costs and operate as efficiently as possible.
Today, agriculture is a highly technical, specialized industry, and farmers need constant access to the latest innovations to stay ahead. High-yielding, drought resistant seeds, soil testing technology, and high-tech machinery and drones that enable us to apply the exact amount of fertilizer, water, and crop protection products that our fields need, and nothing more – these innovations and many more like them have become essential to the way we operate.
Importantly, we need investments in agricultural research across both the public and the private sectors. Many early stage discoveries that farmers use today started out in research laboratories at universities, international agricultural research organizations like CGIAR, and other institutions supported by U.S. public funding, setting the stage for further development by private companies. Public-sector research can also help unlock innovations for underexplored crops like rice – which grows on a comparatively smaller number of acres nationally than other crops like corn or soybeans, but still has a huge impact on our farm economy here in Arkansas, the biggest rice producer in the country.
Investing in innovation isn’t just good for farmers – it makes sense for consumers and the food security of our country. Agricultural R&D has an extremely high return on investment, generating $20 in benefits to our economy for every $1 spent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agricultural research supports American farmers, and also smallholder farmers abroad, contributing to global food and nutrition security, political stability, and U.S. national security, according to a recent Farm Journal Foundation report.
Public-private partnerships, such as the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), can also help taxpayer dollars go even further. Established under the 2014 farm bill, FFAR works with private companies and other investors to match government funding for research; to date, it has generated $1.40 in outside investment for every $1 in federal funding it has received. FFAR’s work is particularly pertinent in today’s era of surging fertilizer costs, as one of its major projects includes leading the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium, which supports research to enable farmers to use fertilizer more efficiently, develop fertilizer alternatives, improve soil productivity, and lower input costs.
Investments like these, and many others like them, are critical to enable farmers to weather current and future market storms. As Congress discusses the next farm bill and federal budget allocations, agricultural research and innovation need to be at the front and center of discussions about how to support farmers and our food supplies. Because at the end of the day, high prices for farm inputs and market volatility will have an adverse effect for consumers, resulting in higher food costs and supply bottlenecks that can threaten our national security. American consumers, and the world, rely on U.S. farmers, and we need to be able to have continued access to innovations that support ample production of safe, affordable food for all.
Brad Doyle is a rice and soybean farmer from Weiner, Arkansas, and a Farmer Ambassador with Farm Journal Foundation.
