Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Crop Circles In The Corn Belt: A Farm-Scale Model To Curb Future Crop Yield Loss With Blended Policy-Structural Adaptations, Daniel Ress

Theses and Dissertations

In today's rainfed agricultural regions farmers reliably produce marketable yields without the need for irrigation technology or specific planting policies. However, climate change is expected to challenge global food security. As a result, farmers might seek adaptation strategies. This research investigates the spatiotemporal suitability of blended policy-structural adaptations to reduce yield losses in Greene County, Ohio. A crop-water model is used to calibrate and generate field-scale yield predictions. The resultant framework holds the potential to inform farmer and county-level decision making under future climate uncertainty, and it illustrates the tradeoffs between adaptation cost and yield security.