Farmers are struggling to balance the cost of production with the soaring supply prices, due mostly to inflation. Farmers are trying to keep costs down on their own while the President recently announced a plan to help farms double their crop output and, in turn, prevent food shortages and high grocery prices.
Mike Arnold with Arnold Family Farm in Sterling tells KSRM:
“We actually have raised our price this year. The price of fertilizer has definitely increased. There’s like five times the price. Some fertilizers that we use have actually gone up that much. There’s also, the fertilizer is starting to be hard to find in some instances. They’re talking about that being a big issue here soon and so we’re kind of concerned about that.”
Arnold adds:
“You know, I don’t want to raise my price, but I have to compete and, plus, just to pay for the product that I have to purchase to grow these things, and then you have your heating costs, those are going up. Everything that we do tends to have some of an increase, especially right now and inflation is not going down, it’s just going to keep going and going. I don’t see an end. I don’t know where it’s going to end.”
In May, President Biden told farmers that his administration will increase the number of counties eligible for double cropping insurance; cut costs for farmers by increasing technical assistance for technology-driven ‘precision agriculture’ and other nutrient management tools; and double funding for domestic fertilizer production. The President blamed inflation and prices at the grocery store on Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The actions that he announced will give farmers the tools and resources needed to lower food prices and boost production.
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