FARMERS in the United States have descended on Washington to voice opposition to a rash of agribusiness mergers that they fear will reduce supply trade competition.
Some 250 members of the National Farmers Union, met with more than 30 members of Congress, and agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack last Monday, to argue that the takeover deals will increase the cost of seeds and crop chemicals, at a time when farmers are already being squeezed by weak commodity markets.
US farmers have tended not to make waves with the big companies that sell to them, but the dominance of some companies has raised fears of a de facto agri-industry monopoly. 
“They’re going to get stuck with high prices and no competitors,” said Tennessee University agri-economist Harwood Schaffer. “At some point there needs to be a shift in government policy toward mergers.”
Canada’s two largest fertilizer companies, Agrium Inc. and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. last week disclosed that they are in merger talks, boosting the value of deals announced in 2016 in the agricultural-chemicals sector to about $125 billion.
Other pending deals include Dow Chemical’s plans to merge with DuPont to create a global chemicals giant.
All the proposed consolidation has raised concerns on Capitol Hill, where the senate judiciary committee is planning a hearing later this month to examine how the rash of deals might affect competition.
“To safeguard the future of food and agriculture in America, we must thoroughly consider the potential consequences of consolidation in this important market,” said Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who heads the committee’s antitrust panel.