2024-01-12 11:31:40
FARGO, N.D. —
A study that last year showed North Dakota’s agriculture industry had a $30.8 billion economic impact
ranked dry edible beans as the No. 5 crop in economic impact. Now a new study will look into the impact of dry edible beans in the region rather that just in one state.
Dean Bangsund and Nancy Hodur, researchers from North Dakota State University, joined Gov. Doug Burgum and Greg Lardy, vice president of agriculture affairs at NDSU, in announcing the results of a study of the impact of agriculture in North Dakota on Dec. 5, 2022, in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Jenny Schlecht / Agweek
Dry edible beans ranked only behind the “big three” of soybeans, corn and wheat, as well as canola, in terms of economic impact compared to other North Dakota crops in the 2022 study, said Dean Bangsund, a research scientist in the North Dakota State University Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. He said those numbers seem consistent throughout at least the past decade.
The study, completed by researchers from the NDSU Department of Agribusiness and Economics and the NDSU Center for Social Research, was supported by various commodity groups, including Northarvest Bean Growers Association. Previously, the department would get requests for reports from individual commodity groups to look only at their segment. This was the first report to look at the entire industry for the state.
However, in turn for supporting the entire study, each supporting commodity group received its own individual economic contribution analysis.
“The dry bean folks were one of those that really felt strongly that they wanted … a deeper, in-depth look for their crop,” Bangsund said.
The
showed that between 2018 and 2020, the sector generated $635 million from dry bean production, $140 million from commodity handling, transportation and processing, $247 million in labor income, $468 million in value-added and $26 million in local and state government revenues. The sector also supported 3,210 jobs — 2,175 jobs supported by dry bean production and 1,035 jobs supported by commodity handling, transportation and processing.
Bangsund said the report is valuable in bringing awareness to just how big the dry bean industry is in North Dakota. The sector is not as visible in terms of huge processing facilities such as ethanol plants and soybean processing plants, so the report showing just how much is generated through dry beans being grown in the state was eye-opening.
The report showed not just the money dry bean farmers take in but what happens with that money.
“When we look at the overall value of the crop, we, of course, look at that portfolio of expenditures made by the producer. But then we trace how those dollar flows, work their way through the economy,” Bangsund explained.
The analysis of the industry can become complicated, Bangsund explained, because of how interconnected some parts are. For example, some crops are raised not for cash but for livestock consumption, and so there is an impact in two different sectors.
Similarly, while the initial analysis looked only at the impact within North Dakota, the dry bean sector does not exist in only a bubble of North Dakota. The Northarvest Bean Growers Association represents growers in both North Dakota and Minnesota, and there is a lot of back-and-forth by farmers between the state states. For instance, a Minnesota farmer might take beans to a North Dakota processing facility or vice-versa.
“So that’s another dimension that we sometimes see with with crops is that they have an interest in portraying their value is in regional context as opposed to drawing a a invisible line at the North Dakota border and saying, ‘OK, this is our crop,'” Bangsund said.
To that point, Northarvest Bean Growers Association has commissioned an expanded study to look at the region as a whole. The new economic analysis is a priority of the newly formed Midwest Dry Bean Coalition.
“We want to expand the geography for dry beans in the forthcoming assessment. That’s specific for that industry with the updated study that we’re working on,” Bangsund said. “We will still have the numbers for North Dakota. But we’re, gonna you know, do a little bit broader look.”
Such studies are important for a crop that is of smaller acreage nationwide but has a regional importance, he explained. His department similarly has looked at sugarbeets and pulses — both crops that are small in national acreage but large in terms of regional impact.
“That’s kind of the next step in this evolving process will be to now pull together stuff on a more regional basis for this crop,” he said.
Such information isn’t just nice for a commodity group to know.
“The real value comes in then, in the promotional educational aspects of the organizations that represent those commodities,” Bangsund said.
That information might be used in both the public sector and the private sector, he said. For instance, on the private sector side, the industry might use the information to try to attract more processing to the region. While the region has some color sorting and
bagging
, it takes a lot of information to get a soup company or another company putting beans into an end product to come to the region. That includes, “we have this much product … we have capacity for this. This is how much is generated. This is the size of the industry. Is it been stable? Has it been growing?” Bangsund explained.
The same resonates on the public sector, where lawmakers and government officials might be needed to support a project.
“And so one of the languages that kind of resonates with policy makers is, you know, dollars and jobs, right? And tax revenue,” he said.
Jenny Schlecht is the director of ag content for Agweek and serves as editor of Agweek, Sugarbeet Grower and BeanGrower. She lives on a farm and ranch near Medina, North Dakota, with her husband and two daughters. You can reach her at jschlecht@agweek.com or 701-595-0425.
1705224161
#Whats #economic #impact #North #Dakota #Minnesota #dry #edible #beans #Agweek
