The good news for Benjamin Rice is that the price for the corn and soybeans he grows on his Philo, Illinois, farm are up this year – a bright spot at a time of uncertainty and upheaval made worse for agricultural producers around the world by the war in Ukraine. 

“This year compared to two years [ago], we’re up in that 50 percent range [of higher prices],” he told VOA during a break in his work in the fields during the harvest.  

But market forces working in Rice’s favor will only benefit him if he can sell the yield from his crops in time. “We’re seeing swings every single day of easily 10, maybe 15 cents of corn and 30 to 70 cents in beans. So, if you can sell one day for 70 cents higher for what tomorrow is going to be, they aren’t small swings anymore,” he said. 

Contributing to price fluctuations are some factors farmers can’t control, like the weather and drought conditions lowering water levels on the Mississippi River, which prevents crop-carrying barges from easily navigating the important waterway leading to international shipping ports.    

While high crop prices are good news for farmers, this year they come with a downside.  The cost of doing business is also up.  

The price of diesel fuel that powers farm equipment is near an all-time high. So is the cost of nitrogen-rich anhydrous ammonia fertilizers, made using natural gas, which farmers rely on to boost crop yields.  

“It’s 40% above the cost last year,” Rice said. “And it’s over 100% the cost it was two years ago for the exact same product.”  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that fertilizer prices account for a hefty segment of farm cash costs – nearly one-fifth. The proportion is even larger for producing wheat and corn.  

While his farm is far away from battle lines in eastern Europe, the effects of the war in Ukraine – and the resulting disruption to natural gas and other supplies – are rippling through Rice’s fields in the midwestern United States.   

“Ukraine and Russia combined export – I believe it’s somewhere in the 30%-to-40% range of the world’s use of anhydrous ammonia, and I know that they are also a big player in that natural gas market,” Rice said. “And as soon as that [war] started, the numbers just exploded on what our input costs were.”  

Those costs haven’t come down since.  

“They’re already taking a look at next year’s prices, where they are seeing triple predictions,” said DeAnne Bloomberg of the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB), speaking with VOA from the group’s headquarters in Bloomington.

Even higher prices 

Bloomberg emphasized there’s no easy way to lower fertilizer costs.  “You can’t just rachet up fertilizer production,” she said. “It takes years for that.”  

So high input prices could go even higher – concerns the IFB is relaying to federal and state lawmakers, urging action where possible.  

“Gasoline prices, and being able to have the supply chain opened up and available, is one piece that we can look at because it is extremely regulated,” said Bloomberg. “So, any of those pieces that regulate those inputs is where government can come into play.”

What farmers aren’t asking for – yet, Bloomberg added – is a return to direct government payments to offset increased costs.

“They also want to work on free markets, and let the markets move through it,” she told VOA. “I don’t see that that’s been on their radar.”  

As the war in Ukraine drags on, food prices continue to rise and inflation weighs on economies across the globe.    

The economic headwinds come at a time when farmer Benjamin Rice is making tough decisions about fertilizer applications ahead of next year’s planting season.   

“I want to cut back and be responsible about it, but not too much to end up hurting next year’s crop,” he said. Acknowledging a delicate balancing act he may have to contend with for years to come, Rice added, “It’s been a roller coaster for sure.”
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Farmers are harvesting crops in the United States during a period of economic uncertainty due in large part to Russia’s war on Ukraine. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, farmers are trying to make the most of higher grain prices while managing external factors affecting their farming operations.
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«Працюємо у Брюсселі, щоб забезпечити необхідним обладнанням українську електричну мережу і щоб наші споживачі не залишились без електричної енергії»
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With its lush forests, abundant waterfalls and flamboyant birds, Guinea is the type of tropical paradise that draws tourists. But the West African country has few visitors and earns almost all its foreign revenue from mining, which can damage that environment. Now some are working to change that.

Guinean tour guide Mohammed Camara balances precariously on a slippery rock as water gushes around him and the three foreigners he’s leading on a hike. Below, the water slices through the cliff making way for a spectacular view of the forest.

He dreams of there one day being a boardwalk that spans the top of the waterfall so his clients don’t have to slip and slide to reach the view. Guinea’s government is more focused on developing the country’s mining industry than on creating ecotourism projects, he says.

“When people talk about mines, everyone talks about Guinea. But when people talk about tourism we don’t talk about Guinea,” Camara said. “And yet there is great potential for tourism in this country that could employ more people than mines and bring in much more money.”

Guinea is the world’s second largest producer of bauxite, the primary ore used to produce aluminum. The country is also rich in iron ore deposits as well as other minerals such as gold and diamonds.

Mining comprises about 25 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, yet Guinea remains one of the poorest countries in the world with more than half the population living below the poverty line.

A 2018 report by Human Rights Watch found Guinea’s mining industry had destroyed ancestral farmlands, polluted water sources and blanketed villages and crops in dust. The environmental destruction of bauxite mining can be so severe it led Malaysia to implement an export ban in 2016.

François Kieffer is the operations manager for Belgian development agency Enabel in Guinea.

In September he helped launch an ecotourism project in Kindia – a forested region about 130 kilometers from Conakry with a high potential to attract tourists.

The project is focused on the construction of facilities that make sightseeing more accessible, such as boardwalks and trail signs, as well as the training of tour guides.

Kieffer said he hopes the projects will provide an alternative to environmentally destructive practices beyond mining, such as slash and burn agriculture and charcoal production.

“Today, human activity puts a lot of pressure on the environment and we realized that it’s the local people who are the first victims of these types of activities,” he said. “The potential for tourism here is incredible.”

Sites such as the breathtaking Mount Gangan and the pristine swimming holes beneath Kilissi Falls are largely unknown outside of Guinea.

From 2010 to 2017, the country saw an average of just 65,000 tourists per year – one-sixteenth the number who visited neighboring Senegal.

Sekou Camara is a local development officer in Guinea’s Linsan sub-prefecture.

“In Kindia, there are a lot of sites that are beloved by the locals. But because those sites aren’t developed, people are afraid to go,” said Sekou Camara, a local development officer in Guinea’s Linsan sub-prefecture. “If we succeed in developing them, Kindia could become attractive. But for now people are prioritizing the mines.”

He motions to the waterfalls plunging down the verdant face of Mount Gangan. That could be Guinea’s crown jewel, he says.
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«Політично встановлені обмеження цін завжди несуть ризик, що виробники будуть продавати свій газ в інших місцях»
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