Indiana farm income expected to jump 20 percent

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - Rising prices for crops and a weak economy could yield a bumper year for Indiana farmers.

Farm income in the state is expected to be 20 percent higher than last year, which saw the second-highest farm profit in a decade, according to the federal government and a Purdue University economist.

Christopher Hurt, an agriculture economics professor, told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne that some of the increase is due to the recession, which pushed down prices for fertilizer and other items and made it cheaper to produce an acre of crops.

Experts say the U.S. agriculture sector wasn't hit as hard by the recession as other parts of the economy. Droughts and floods in Russia, Ukraine, Canada and Kazakhstan caused weather-related crop losses in those countries, boosting prices for U.S. crops like wheat and corn, Hurt said.

The U.S. also found new customers.

"China bought corn from the U.S. in the spring of 2010, which was the first time in 15 years," Hurt said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects farm income will rise again in 2011, but Hurt said it will probably be at a slower rate than the past two years.

The 20 percent increase projected for this year would add $508 million to the state's economy.

Nationally, farm income this year is expected to be 24 percent higher than it was in 2009.