The nation’s primary inland waterways system–the upper and lower Mississippi River, Arkansas River, Illinois River, Ohio River, Tennessee River, Missouri River, and Columbia and Snake Rivers–moves grain from America’s heartland to export ports, transporting about 65 percent of U.S. grain exports.
Economic Importance of Inland Waterways to U.S. Agriculture (2026)
This report quantifies some of the contributions of the U.S. inland waterways by measuring the economic impact of the inland waterway transportation services industry, as well as the agricultural industries utilizing these waterways to bring goods to export. This report serves as an update and enhancement of the previous Importance of Inland Waterways to U.S. Agriculture report, published in 2019. This report considers several of the same agricultural commodities included in the 2019 study (namely corn and soybeans) but adds analyses of wheat, rice, and sorghum grain. Furthermore, States not previously considered in the 2019 study have been added to this analysis: Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington. Similar to the 2019 report, the report used updated data to model economic impacts from investment scenarios under varying levels of funding as well as State-level economic impacts for 19 States. New to the 2026 report, this report incorporates stakeholder feedback to help identify the economic impact of U.S. inland waterways as well as opportunities for improvement.
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Access the Interactive Data Dashboard of State-level impacts on AgTransport
Importance of Inland Waterways to U.S. Agriculture (2019)
This report used economic modeling to forecast the impacts to the U.S. economy and agricultural competitiveness in global markets. The benefits and costs from varying levels of funding to maintain and improve the country’s inland waterways system were compared over a 10-year and a 25-year period. The report also includes analysis of State-level economic impacts for 12 States with the largest movements of corn and soybeans by barge (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin).
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View the Summary Report (pdf)
View the Press Release - August 28, 2019 - Secretary Perdue, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works James Highlight Importance of Waterways to U.S. Agriculture