WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Farmers in Kansas are taking a massive hit financially, their average income dropping from a 5-year average of $120,000 to just over $4,500, levels that haven’t been seen since the 1980s.

“Consumers should be very concerned when they see any time that the incomes of farmers and ranchers drop because these are the people that provide the food for our tables three times a day every day out of the year,” said KSN Ag expert John Jenkinson.

The big question for many people is what this will ultimately mean for them at the grocery store. The short answer? No direct effect right away.

“If this situation were to continue, for many years, it would remove more and more farmers from the business who would not be able to stay in the business and we would see food prices increase because that food would have to be imported to other countries,” said Jenkinson.

Jenkinson says that farmers know they can face tough times, saying that things work in a cyclical manner. This situation is primarily caused by two factors.

“Number one is a big surplus of grain which we have, we’ve had good crops, number 2 is this very strong dollar, we are not competitive in the global market,” said Jenkinson, “We’ve been through tough times before, and we will go through tough times again. how soon we will recover from this is still very very uncertain.”

According to Jenkinson, how fast we recover will depend upon the weather and economies both in the United States and around the world.