Fertilizer Costs, Farm Payments And Screwworm Response Raise Concerns

Jul 02, 2026

By Bob Bragg

Over the past couple of months, both the price of fuel and fertilizer has been volatile, because of the on again off again war with Iran, which has some of Trump’s Cabinet floating the idea that the U.S. should just simply increase domestic fertilizer production. Problem solved.

But Corey Rosenbusch, President and CEO of the Fertilizer Institute points out that increasing fertilizer production isn’t just a matter of flipping a switch, because it could take four or five years to build a nitrogen plant, and that would cost $4 billion or $5 billion. But Rosenbusch contends that fertilizer plants shouldn’t be operated by the federal government, because the U.S. has a free enterprise economy. Another consideration is that China is the world’s largest producer of fertilizer, and they have increased their production by 20% this year, which could bring down the cost of fertilizer if they decided to engage in fertilizer trade.

Although President Trump has sent about $12 billion to farmers this year to cushion the blow caused by tariffs, he is now considering sending an additional $10 billion to row crop and specialty crop producers for fields planted in 2026, along with $1.1 billion designated for Florida farmers hit by winter storms in late 2025 and early 2026.

These new payments are ostensibly being made to help producers contend with high production costs and low crop prices that have been made worse by Trump’s current trade policies and the war with Iran.

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