Fertilizer is spread across a field in China Grove, North Carolina, on April 10, 2026.
Grant Baldwin | AFP | Getty Images
On a farm in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where her husband’s family has worked the land for generations, Lorenda Overman is facing familiar hurdles — but also new pressures she couldn’t have predicted only months ago.
“We’re always battling weather, disease and insects,” said Overman. “Three years we’ve had record high input prices, and it has just got higher the last six or eight weeks.”
Fertilizer prices have surged due to shipping disruptions from the war in the Middle East, and the higher costs are rippling across U.S. agriculture just as spring planting gets underway. Farmers are being forced to scale back inputs, shift crops and reconsider how much to plant, which could affect the supply of certain crops in the U.S. and around the world.
New survey data from the American Farm Bureau Federation shows fertilizer access and affordability are becoming a defining challenge for this year’s growing season. Almost six in 10, or 58%, report worsening financial conditions amid rising input and fuel costs, according to the survey conducted April 3 through April 11.
A major share of farmers say they cannot afford all the fertilizer they need. In the Midwest, nearly half, or 48%, said they could not afford the fertilizer they need. That share was at least 66% in the Western, Northeast and Southern regions.
Overman said she did not order fertilizer ahead of time, which is a common practice in the industry, because her farm could not make ends meet last year and she was hoping that prices would go down as planting season began this year.
“We can’t wait for the [Strait of Hormuz] to open back up and those ships to get here before we have to purchase those inputs,” said Overman.
Fertilizer and nitrogen costs on her farm jumped from $139 per acre last year to an unexpected $217 this season.
Now bracing for a less profitable growing season, she’s among the many farmers reworking their books to try to blunt the blow from rising commodity costs.
That could not only affect those farmers’ bottom lines, but also their ability to grow the quantity of key crops they usually would.
Southern farmers and crops hit hardest
While farmers across the U.S. are struggling with higher costs, the impact isn’t evenly distributed across the land.
Producers in the South are the most exposed, according to the Farm Bureau’s data, as just 19% pre-booked fertilizer ahead of the season — far below the Midwest, where 67% locked in supplies early. That timing gap is critical: farmers who didn’t pre-buy are now facing higher prices.
As a result, 78% of Southern farmers say they can’t afford all required fertilizer, compared to 48% in the Midwest.
That is especially concerning given the crop mix. More than 80% of rice, cotton and peanut producers say they’re unable to afford necessary inputs. Those crops will be the most vulnerable to reduced yields this season, compared to soybeans, which tend to require less nitrogen.
That is why farmers like Overman say they’re adjusting their planting strategy this year.
“We’re going to cut back on our acreage of corn and try to plant a crop that’s a little less fertilizer and nitrogen dependent, which would be soybeans,” said Overman. “We’re also going to … spread that fertilizer, a little bit thinner.”
Tommy Salisbury, an Oklahoma farmer and leader with the Farm Bureau’s young farmers and ranchers group, said the spike in fertilizer prices came at an inopportune time for farmers.
“That increase that we’ve talked about on fertilizer happened right before spring planning. It was the worst timing of all,” said Salisbury. “We were already budgeted.”
Salisbury plans to reduce his milo acreage, a cereal grain similar to corn, and also pivot toward soybeans to offset rising costs. Making matters worse, crop prices are low enough that it becomes hard to break even when facing higher costs.
“We are paying input prices of 2026, but getting crop prices of the ’70s and ’80s,” he said.
All of this poses a threat to yields for 2026.
When farmers cut fertilizer use or shift acreage, it raises the risk of lower crop yields and reduced overall production. With large portions of the South, Northeast and West unable to fully fertilize crops, the Farm Bureau suggests those risks are building.
The advocacy group aims to meet with the White House to push for more aid for farmers in the coming months.
