Soybeans have been in the headlines a lot this year. Between a trade war with China, rising costs for farming equipment and supplies and low prices, farmers have seen a perfect storm of economic uncertainty. 

“It’s been a doozy of a year for agriculture,” said Rob Baker, a Mississippi soybean farmer and Director of the American Soybean Association. 

Soybeans are the second-largest agricultural product in Mississippi behind chickens. Valued at around $1.6 billion a year, almost all of the state’s soybeans are destined for international markets. 

China is the world’s largest importer, but in May, it stopped buying soybeans in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. China did not place its first order until October, just before Trump met with China’s President Xi Jinping. This period of uncertainty left American soybean farmers in limbo.

The White House has said that China committed to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans from the U.S., but so far it has only bought 332,000 metric tons. This has led to concerns about whether it will keep its promises, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said that China is still on track to keep up its end of the deal. 

This year’s tariffs alone didn’t cause the challenges but they did exacerbate existing problems soybean farmers were facing. In fact, farmers are still experiencing impacts of a 2018 trade war.

In May, Will Maples, an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University Extension Service told Mississippi Today that some of the economic challenges soybean farmers were facing were “kind of a holdover from the last 2018 trade war we had with China.”

The 2018 trade war saw some of the lowest levels in soybean purchases in the last 10 years. China has steadily invested in developing partners in other countries such as Brazil, putting further pressure on American farmers.

Even apart from global trade relations, farmers have struggled with historically high input costs for everything from seed and fertilizer to labor. On top of that, prices have dropped for soybeans and other row crops. High costs and low crop prices mean farmers face slim-to-no profit margins.  

In October, Duane Dunlap, president of DNS Commodities, told the Mississippi Senate Agriculture Committee, “It’s a real dilemma for us  in Mississippi and the Delta trying to decide where we go from here with our soybean crop.” 

Baker says the industry is looking for “more diverse uses for soy and new trading partners.” Some ideas include biodiesel, using soybeans in tires and more. 

Crop diversification presents its own challenges. Despite the challenges, soybeans are slightly better off than other row crops, such as cotton. Diversification isn’t as easy as just planting something new. It requires infrastructure to transport it and support the industry, which would take time and money to build.

While there are national and global forces at play, there are some ideas for what can be done in Mississippi. One idea that was floated at a recent state agriculture legislative committee meeting was building a processing plant in the state to create more demand and expand capabilities. 

In early December, the Trump administration announced a $12 billion bailout for farmers with funding coming from the Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program. The aid will help farmers mitigate their losses from this year and get loans to buy supplies for the next planting season. While many details haven’t been released, Baker says that the package is “a good start.” 

While 2025 has been a rough year, Baker says that he’s “starting to see a little bit of optimism” among soybean farmers who are hoping to return to profitability in 2026.