Experts say 2022 has been the worst year for Louisiana sweet potato production in more than 30 years. LSU Ag Center sweet potato specialist Myrl Sistrunk said inconsistent weather caused the worst damage.
“Well we had a dry spell, a wet spell, and then back to a dry spell in harvest, and that all impacted yields and yields were off all over the state,” Sistrunk said
The hot dry summer was replaced with deluges that dumped as much as 20 inches of rain in some places in a matter of days, flooding fields and rotting potatoes.
He says farmers in the northeastern part of the state were hit the hardest, but the 2022 crop was expensive to plant all over the state, due to increased fuel, labor, and pesticide costs. He says production is down as much as sixty percent.
“We’ve been seeing close to 500 a bushel an acre yields this year, yields probably going to come in 170, 180 average for the state,” he said.
Sistrunk said this year has been a blow to farmers who had been banking on a bumper crop to help offset the cost of production. He says unlike farmers who grow soy, corn, and other crops that get government subsidies, sweet potato farmers do not have that kind of safety net. But he said the ones he has spoken with are trying to hang on.
“Some of them are having to work with their bankers to get lined up for next year and they’re all planning on trying to be back next year if everything works out,” he said.
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