Missouri River flooding could be devastating for agriculture

Rising water levels on the Missouri river are expected to swamp hundreds of thousands of acres of crops and halt barge traffic.

The threat of decreased crop acreage in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri is driving prices for corn and soy beans Wednesday.

Ron Plain is a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri. He says flooding along the Missouri River could be devastating for bottomland farmers.

“The water level is going to be up for over a month, some talk of maybe two months, which means there won’t be any crops harvested off the land this year, because by the time water level goes down it looks like it will be too late to get a crop grown before frost shows up,” Plain said.

Plain says Missouri is a major producer of soybeans, planting some 5.3 million acres this year.

Adam Allington, St. Louis Public Radio

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