FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — It’s growing season across the country, and the rising prices of farming supplies is being felt here at home.

The price for seeds, chemicals and soil products are higher than ever before according to the farmers such as Dennis Mcgarrah with Rivercrest Orchard and Kelton Hays with Cobblestone Farms.

“This year, everything is exponentially more than what it was the last few years,” said Mcgarrah. “We saw a little uptick last year this year is just went crazy on us.”

Rivercrest Orchard is part of the Mcgarrah family farm in Fayetteville that has been around since the 1820’s. Mcgarrah said higher price tags everywhere are making huge differences for his local business.

For example, he said the strawberry plants they bought were 10 cents more than what they had been previously and Rivercrest Orchard has around 50,000 strawberry plants.

Macgarrah said he’s seeing the price increase in everything from fueling the tractor tanks to the chemicals they use. In fact, the local shop they bought their chemicals at no longer is in business, so now farmers in Northwest Arkansas might be forced to order the products. This could increase costs and timeliness with many of the country’s supply chain issues.

These higher prices could lead to some costs being passed on to the consumer.

“We’ll probably raise the price on our strawberries a little bit this year, which would be the first time we’ve raised the price on strawberries in about 10 years,” said Macgarrah.

Kelton Hays with Cobblestone Farms, a non-profit looking to end food insecurity and contribute to the community’s food system, worries price increases will create more food insecurity.

“The rising prices are going to impact the number of people accessing emergency food sources, food pantries, food banks, things like that,” said Hays.

To ensure the quality and price of your produce doesn’t change, Hays said to do a simple search online for your nearest local farmer and buy something directly from them to cut out any need for a middle man.

It’s almost time for strawberry season at Rivercrest Orchard and even with the price increases, it hopes to still make profit.

At Cobblestone Farm, Hays said his team is slowly building its farm up to be a place to teach future Northwest Arkansas farmers.