Mississippi Farmers Trade Cotton for Corn

The Agriculture Department estimates that 8.8 million acres of cotton will be planted in the United States this year, down 7 percent from 2008 and 42 percent from 2006. It will be the lowest cotton acreage since 1983, an anomalous year when farmers cut acreage after a string of bountiful harvests that created a surplus. Nowhere has the slump been greater than in Mississippi, where farmers decreased their cotton planting to 365,000 acres in 2008, from 1.2 million acres in 2006. A survey suggested that could fall to 268,000 acres this year. Since 2003, cotton prices have declined nearly 23 percent, while prices for soybeans are up more than 38 percent and corn nearly 65 percent. Cotton surpluses have been stacking up around the globe in part because of rising yields from genetically modified cotton seeds and other technological improvements. Full article here.