When the Weather Gets More Uncertain, Farmers Need More Tools
For farmers, uncertainty has always been part of the job. But the weather may be adding another layer of risk in the months ahead. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the current El Niño is on track to be the strongest in at least 70 years, increasing the potential for disruptions to agriculture around the world.
The World Meteorological Organization is similarly warning that El Niño is expected to strengthen through the end of 2026, with a nearly 100% likelihood that it will persist through February 2027. While impacts will vary by region, a strong El Niño can shift rainfall and temperature patterns and raise the risk of drought, flooding, and extreme heat—all conditions that can make growing a successful crop more difficult.
The changing conditions can also reshape the pest pressures farmers face from one season to the next. Wetter conditions can create environments more favorable to certain crop diseases, potentially changing when farmers need fungicides. Milder winters can affect how well insect pests survive and when they emerge, while warmer spring soils can bring certain weeds out earlier and narrow the window farmers have to control them. As AgWeb recently highlighted, shifts in weather can require farmers to adjust scouting, timing and crop protection strategies based on what is actually happening in their fields.
Those challenges come at an especially difficult moment for American agriculture. The Modern Ag Alliance’s 2026 State of the American Farmer report found that only about half of farmers expected to be profitable in the past year. Key commodity prices have fallen by as much as 58% since 2022, while more than half of farmers report higher costs for labor, inputs and other necessities. When margins are already this tight, a drought, flood, or prolonged stretch of extreme heat can turn a difficult growing season into an unsustainable one.
Farmers cannot control the weather, but they can take steps to make their operations more resilient. Conservation practices such as no-till farming, reduced tillage and cover cropping can help protect soil from erosion and runoff, improve soil health and conserve moisture. Crop protection tools are an important part of making many of these practices possible by allowing farmers to control weeds and transition between cover crops and cash crops without repeatedly tilling the soil. Conservation practices supported by tools like glyphosate can substantially reduce water use while helping farmers protect soil and use less fuel.
As farmers navigate tighter margins and increasingly unpredictable growing conditions, they need certainty that the proven tools and conservation practices they rely on will remain available.