Losses to Extreme Events: Drought
Drought is one weather risk that nearly all agricultural operations must deal with and it can have significant impact on production. From 1989 to 2018, the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) issued a total of $48.1 trillion in indemnity payments for drought-related losses on all covered commodities in the United States (USDA Risk Management Agency (n.d.)). Agricultural drought is influenced by precipitation shortages, reduced water availability (topsoil, ground, or surface), and differences between actual and potential evapotranspiration, among other variables, as it relates to the needs of the plant or crop.
Drought damage on corn. Photo courtesy of Vicki Jedlicka, University of Nebraska, 2012
REFERENCES National Drought Mitigation Center. (2020). Types of drought [Website]. University of Nebraska. https://drought.unl.edu/Education/DroughtIn-depth/TypesofDrought.aspx
USDA Risk Management Agency. (n.d.). AgRisk viewer [Website]. USDA Southwest Climate Hub and ARS Jornada Experimental Range. https://swclimatehub.info/rma/rma-data-viewer.html
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