Tariffs, economy threaten to force struggling Arkansas farmers out of business
LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Increasing back-and-forth tariffs between the U.S. and countries like China amid the Trump administration’s trade

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Increasing back-and-forth tariffs between the U.S. and countries like China amid the Trump administration’s trade war might be the straw that broke the camel’s back for some Arkansas farmers, more and more of whom are being forced out of business.
“The stress in the farm community right now is really high. Margins are already low,” Daniels told KATV in March. “We know a lot of farmers have decided to get out this year and not farm. And so, continued price declines could exacerbate that trend.”
China announced 10 percent tariffs in March against U.S. crops like soybeans, Arkansas’ largest export crop, and has suspended the soybean import licenses of three U.S. firms, some of which operate in Arkansas.
China’s new 125 percent retaliatory tariff against the U.S. in particular risks bringing Arkansas farmers enduring a woeful domestic agricultural economy to their breaking point.
“There’s already a lot of exits this year from farmers that just couldn’t make it work. And if it continues like it is now, there will be even more people that exit the business next year,” said Jeff Rutledge, a Jackson County rice, corn, and soybean farmer who holds the position of vice president of the Agricultural Council of Arkansas and serves on numerous state and federal agriculture and rice boards.
“The stress in the farm community right now is really high, margins are already low,” Daniels said. “We know a lot of farmers have decided to get out this year and not farm. And so, continued price declines could exacerbate that trend.”
Retaliatory tariffs have caused prices and returns from crops to drop even further to levels unsustainable for many farmers. Pair that with the already sky-high input costs that are expected to shoot up because of reciprocal tariffs, and the situation is grim, to put it lightly.
“Break even’s not even in sight. Every crop that we could possibly plant had a negative return projected,” Rutledge told KATV.
Right now it’s hard to see much method in the tariff madness, but Rutledge says Trump’s reciprocal tariffs against countries that import cheap rice into the U.S., like India, are helping to even the playing field for rice farmers.
“We have been allowing imports of foreign rice to come in and compete in our market that are heavily subsidized in other countries—and so can come in at a far cheaper rate than what we can produce it,” Rutledge said. “So, on that side of it, tariffs in the rice industry, reciprocal tariffs, were much needed.”
Trump has long spoken of reciprocating unfair tariffs levied against the U.S. by other countries. In 2018, Trump initiated a more restrained trade war with China with tariffs that Rutledge says eventually benefited farmers. But is the current shock to the system ultimately doing more harm than good?
“We’ve seen in the past, they’ve had a positive effect longer term,” Rutledge said, “but near-term pain—especially at the time we have now in the farm economy—is really hard to bear. Move fast and break things is really not a great strategy.”
So what will it take to save Arkansas farmers?
Aside from the lifting of tariffs, Rutledge says more subsidizing of U.S. farmers is necessary to their survival. And perhaps key to that is the long-overdue Farm Bill.
Farmers in America currently operate under an outdated Farm Bill passed in 2018, which established a subsidy safety net for farmers. But Rutledge says that safety net no longer saves farmers from hitting rock bottom because of inflation and, now, tariffs.
“The safety net that was established in that was based upon commodity prices from 2014, 2012,” he told KATV. “Tell me what you can buy today at the same price that you could buy in 2012.”
Rutledge said that making things even harder right now is the fact that many USDA Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) or Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants to farmers have been frozen by the federal government.