Daybreak April 21: Rollins hints at fertilizer announcement this week

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the administration is acting “with urgency” to bring fertilizer prices down and hinted that further steps may be announced this week. 

“Fertilizer input costs remain a serious challenge for our farmers,” Rollins wrote on X on Monday. “More coming this week. Stay tuned! We won’t be able to fix it overnight, but progress is happening.”

The administration has already taken some steps to ease price pressures, including by easing domestic shipping requirements and loosening controls on Venezuelan fertilizer imports. Urea prices, however, are still up around 80% from the beginning of the year. 

Take note: The administration has been exploring multiple policy options to bring prices down. 

Rollins told lawmakers last week that the administration is poised to announce an initiative to use tariff revenues to strengthen domestic fertilizer supplies. Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Friday that the U.S. is mounting an initiative at the G20 to shore up fertilizer access internationally. 

Indian negotiators in Washington

Indian trade officials are in Washington as both sides try to finalize the contours of a trade pact between the two countries. 

U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor called the talks this week “a great step” toward finalizing the deal. The meetings also come just days after U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told lawmakers that opening the Indian market to apples is among the administration’s ag priorities. 

The Indian media is reporting that a delegation of around a dozen officials will be in Washington until Wednesday. 

Take note: Greer was also in Mexico Monday for meetings with counterparts there on the forthcoming U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement review. In a joint statement following the meetings, Greer and Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard agreed to begin the first official bilateral USMCA negotiating round the week of May 25 in Mexico City.  

Smith nomination vote postponed

The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed a vote Monday night to advance Glen Smith’s nomination for USDA undersecretary for rural development. 

A committee aide told Agri-Pulse via text that the delay was because Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley would not be able to attend. Grassley said Monday in a social media post that he had a procedure to remove gallstones over the weekend but would be “back to the Capitol ASAP.” 

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No new date has been set, according to the aide.

Groups seek to preserve lending data regulation

Some 215 groups on Monday urged lawmakers to preserve a section of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that requires financial institutions to collect data on credit for small businesses.

In a letter to Congress, the groups urged lawmakers to reject “a raft of legislative proposals” to weaken Section 1071 of the law, arguing that the data could help shape "new lending products to meet the different needs of small businesses and farms.”

One such bill would delay implementation until 2031 and exempt lenders that make fewer than 2,500 loans in 2 years or have fewer than $10 billion in assets, according to a press release from Americans for Financial Reform, one of the groups on the letter.

"While we are sensitive to concerns about possible regulatory burdens faced by smaller lending institutions, it is equally important to be sensitive to the historic and persistent patterns of discrimination faced by business and farm loan applicants,” the letter says. "Congress enacted this statutory provision 15 years ago, and the government has yet to collect and publish any data because of the fierce resistance to transparency by the lending industry."

Corteva celebrates the 100th anniversary of its flagship Pioneer seeds at a company event in Johnston, Iowa. (Agri-Pulse photo) 

Corteva throws 100th anniversary bash for Pioneer as seed spinoff nears

Fireworks, pompoms and confetti made for a celebratory vibe in Iowa as Corteva threw a 100^th birthday party for its Pioneer seed business in Johnston, Iowa.

Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Company’s origins stem from experiments in hybridizing corn by former ag secretary and Vice President Henry Wallace. The lookback comes as Indianapolis-based Corteva prepares to spin off its seed business into a separate company.

Iowa officials are hopeful Corteva will headquarter the stand-alone seed operation in Johnston, according to a company spokesperson.

“You don’t have to go very far to put an idea [out] to test it, to trial it, to quickly find out if there’s something of value there,” Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig said at the Corteva event on Monday. “Even in Johnston, there’s a corn field right in the middle of town, for goodness’ sake.”

Pioneer was the first to produce hybrid corn at scale, driving an increase of almost 600% in average U.S. corn yields.  

AgCon returning to Kansas 

The Agricultural Commodity Futures Conference, known as AgCon, will return to Overland Park, Kansas, Oct. 22-23. 

Hosted by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Risk Management Center at Kansas State University, the fourth edition of the event “will allow the agency to hear directly from agricultural leaders from across the country on how we can best serve the agriculture industry,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said. 

Take note: The House and Senate agriculture committees oversee the CFTC, making the event an important convening of government officials, agribusiness leaders, and academia to discuss issues affecting America’s agricultural futures markets.

The 2026 event “serves an essential role at a pivotal moment for American agriculture, helping ensure that robust, effective price risk management tools remain available to support informed decisionmaking across the agricultural sector,” said Dan Moser, Eldon Gideon Dean of the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University.

Final word

“We encourage USTR to consider a rice-specific Section 301 investigation that focuses on many nations from across the globe engaged in unfair policies, acts, or practices damaging our domestic industry, including, but not limited to: India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Brazil, and the European Union…. American rice farmers can compete with any farmer anywhere in the world, provided they are on a level playing field.” – A group of 17 House Republicans led by Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., to Greer in a letter sent Monday.

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