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Average
Net Farm income in North Dakota
1982
- net farm income, when adjusted for inflation, was lower than
during the Great Depression
1985
- $19,618
1993
- There has been a downward trend in North Dakota median net farm
income since 1993 primarily because of the economies of spring
wheat, barley and the beef cow-calf enterprises.
1997
- In rural farm and urban farm counties, over one-third of households
have annual incomes less than $15,000. Only one in five households
in metros have such low incomes. In rural farm counties poverty
is 60 percent greater than in metro areas. Child Poverty in those
rural farm counties is 50 percent greater than in metro areas,
according to "Trampled Dreams: The Neglected Economy of the
Rural Great Plains," a study of the economic status of rural
counties in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and
South Dakota by Dr. Patricia Funk and Jon Bailey of Center for
Rural Affairs. The study analyzes data from 1988 to 1997. The
study finds that despite a national economy of historic prosperity,
agriculturally-based counties of the region are experiencing significantly
higher rates of poverty and significantly lower incomes than urban
counties in the region. A copy of the Executive Summary is on
the Center's website at www.cfra.org/execsummarytrampleddreams.htm1998
- NDSU Ag Economist Andy Swensen says despite record high yields
for sunflower, flax, corn, sugarbeets, and potatoes, net farm
income would have been $0 without farm program payments and emergency
aid.
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View U.S.D.A.
Farmer’s Share Graphic
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Survey
shows growing farm debt
ND Farm Business Management, Education Program, 1991-1998
1992:
Approximately 7 percent of farms with negative net farm
income
1998: 26 percent of North Dakota farms have a negative
net farm income
1992:
21 percent of farms have a greater than 70 percent debt
to asset ratio
1998: 33 percent of farms have a greater than 70
percent debt to asset ratio.
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