Farmers in the United States are getting subsidies to offset rising fertilizer costs and might be in line for more but so far Canadians have been promised nothing.
The United States Department of Agriculture has already committed nearly $10 billion to farmers to help with high fertilizer costs, including: $780 million to Illinois; $805 million to Texas; $773 million to Kansas; and $857 million to Iowa.
Reports also suggest it may utilize Trump administration tariff revenue to help with fertilizer costs, although the Supreme Court’s February ruling on tariff policy has complicated the legality of those funds.
In late March, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said a “super majority” of American farmers had pre-booked fertilizers at lower pre-war costs, and therefore, there “shouldn’t be too much of a disruption” to U.S. planting of critical feed crops for meat processing.
However, an American Farm Bureau Federation survey of farmers questions the truth of her claim.
According to the survey, pre-booking differed “significantly by region”: 67 per cent among Midwest farmers, but 30 per cent in the Northeast, 31 per cent in the West, and 19 per cent in the South.
Even with those pre-bookings, 70 per cent of all farmers reported they were unable to afford fertilizer for 2026’s planting, including 48%per cent in the Midwest, 69 per cent in the Northeast, 78 per cent in the South, and 66 per cent in the West.
Specific to crops, the Farm Bureau found that 68per cent of soybean farmers cannot afford all required fertilizer and neither can 66 per cent of corn farmers.
