Kansas farmers may be facing some of toughest financial times they have experienced in three decades. As Harvest Public Media’s Jeremy Bernfeld reports, that could put a hit on the economy.
The average net farm income in Kansas plummeted last year to just over $4,500. That’s a year-over-year drop of 96 percent, according to a report by the Kansas Farm Management Association.
Farmers are getting low prices for important crops like corn, soybeans, wheat and cattle, thanks to oversupply. That’s leaving them with less money to spend on their business, and on most everything else.
“Right now the main thing is just going to be focusing on being a low-cost producer and weathering the storm for the next couple of years,” says Elizabeth Yeager, an agricultural economist from K-State.
The agriculture industry accounts for 43 percent of the Kansas economy, according to the state Agriculture Department.