OK Port Show convenes stakeholders to discuss MKARNS investments

Kansas Soybean farmer-leaders and staff attended the Oklahoma Port Show June 6-7, 2024, where they learned more about the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS), specifically the Port of Catoosa and the Port of Muskogee. The MKARNS is 445-mile-long conjunction of the Arkansas, Verdigris, and White Rivers. This water system is multi-faceted, providing water supply, freight transportation, fish and wildlife, recreation, hydropower generation, and flood control. The MKARNS serves a twelve-state region, including Kansas. The Port of Catoosa is the head to this water navigation system and is the most westerly inward port that eventually connects to the Mississippi River.

Raylen Phelon, a Kansas Soybean Commissioner, stated that much of the discussion surrounded the importance of the port to the agricultural industry, specifically the export of Kansas soybeans and the importation of fertilizer. There were several guest speakers, including Joe Newland, president of the Kansas Farm Bureau, who emphasized the importance of the waterways to Kansas as it assists with trade internationally and creates a grain market for producers. Newland expressed how important it is to invest in the maintenance of the locks and dams because, “if locks and dams within this waterway are not maintained, Kansas producers lose access to a critical market. Investments that we do now are investments for our future.”  

The follow-up discussion touched on how producers and organizations can further advocate for the ports and the water navigation system to be regularly maintained. Randy Stookey from the Kansas Grain and Feed Association stated that, “We need to be the consistent Kansas voice that advocates for why these ports are so valuable and continue to ask for those dollars. Organizational investments, such as those that come from the Kansas Farm Bureau, are so important for the future of this waterway.”