INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – An agricultural economist with the Purdue Extension office says food prices could increase 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent as farmers continue to battle the drought.
The drought is so bad, according to corn specialist Bob Nielsen, that the levels of failing crops are comparable to the drought of 1988. According to Nielsen, 19 percent of Indiana’s corn crop was rated good to excellent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As of the beginning of July, according to the same report, more than 90 percent of the lands used to grow corn were rated as short or very short on moisture.
Chris Hurt, an agricultural economist with the Purdue Extension, says 20 percent of corn yields have already been lost in a summer that has seen unyielding heat and little moisture.
Soybeans are doing better according to the Purdue Extension, but it is not by much. They say yield projections are down 15 percent or about seven bushels per acre.
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