Windbreaks for Reducing Crop Loss

Wind damage cost the U.S. government approximately 1.2 billion in crop insurance payments between 2015 to 2021. Approximately half of these payments were for damage claims in the Midwest. Windbreaks are rows of trees and shrubs planted on farms and in communities to reduce wind speed. Most of the studies demonstrating the benefits of windbreaks have focused on farm-level analysis, with limited evidence on their big picture impact beyond farm boundaries. To address this gap in knowledge, Center for Agroforestry researchers and partners have conducted a regional-scale evaluation of windbreak effectiveness in reducing wind-related crop loss across four states.

Using windbreak data derived from remote sensing, crop insurance, or crop indemnity data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as wind data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the research team developed a county-level quantitative model to assess windbreak effectiveness in reducing crop loss. The study focuses on Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, and North Dakota, which has one of the highest concentrations of windbreaks in the country, and four major crops, including corn, wheat, soybean, and sunflower, that are reported to be highly impacted by wind-related damage.

A web-based dashboard has been developed by Professor Tinghao Feng at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. The dashboard allows you to visualize crop indemnity, wind speed, windbreaks, and other parameters at any given time period.

View the Windbreak Dashboard

Funding Source: USDA NIFA Grant No. 2022-67021-36604.

Datasets: Available upon request. See contact below.

Related publications:

Saiful Islam, S.M., Thapa, B., Hossain, T. K. S. M. Modeling the Impact of Windbreaks on Wind-related Crop Losses in the Midwest, USA: A Graph Convolutional Network Approach. International Journal of Geographical Information Science. (under review)

Contact: Bhuwan Thapa, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina – Greensboro, b_thapa3@uncg.edu