Estimation of wildlife damage from federal crop insurance data

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Wildlife damage to crops is a persistent and costly problem for many farmers in the USA. Most existing estimates of crop damage have relied on direct assessment methods such as field studies conducted by trained biologists or surveys distributed to farmers. In this paper, we describe a new method of estimating wildlife damage that exploits federal crop insurance data. We focused our study on four crops: corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton, chosen because of their economic importance and their vulnerability to wildlife damage. RESULTS: We determined crop-raiding hot spots across the USA over the 2015-2019 period and identified the eastern and southern regions of the USA as being the most susceptible to wildlife damage. We estimated lower bounds for dollar and percent losses attributable to wildlife to these four crops. The combined loss across four crops was estimated at $592.6 million. The highest total estimated losses to wildlife were incurred by soybeans ($323.9 million) and corn ($194.0 million) and the highest percentage losses were estimated for soybeans (0.87%) and cotton (0.72%). CONCLUSION: We believe the proposed method is a reliable way to evaluate geographic and temporal heterogeneity in damages for the coming years. Accurate information on damages benefits various management agencies by allowing them to allocate management resources to crops and regions where the problem is relatively severe. A better understanding of damage heterogeneity can also help guide research and development of new management techniques.

Event pattern analysis: Spatial clustering of sequential events and temporal change of events over time

“…Detection of an increase in small earthquakes is critical for predicting and preparing for bigger earthquakes. Wildlife damage to crops is a serious problem for farmers in many countries (Conover, 2001; Mckee et al, 2021). By monitoring the wildlife damage, we can detect damaged places, the places where damage is increasing, and prevent the further spread of wildlife damage.…”

Socio - Economic Impacts of Human - Wildlife Conflicts in Kieni Sub -County, Kenya

“…Crop raiding is an example of a direct impact of human-wildlife conflicts which is a common challenge to many farmers globally. For instance, between the year 2015 and 2019 in both eastern as well as southern parts of the USA, it is estimated that soybeans and corn worth US$323.9 million and US$194.0 million respectively was lost to different wildlife species Mckee et al (2021). Additionally, in Brazil, it was noted that there were 2611 cases as a result of animals being crashed by vehicles every year.…”

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“…They feed on plants, spread pathogenic microorganisms, and cause huge economic and ecological losses to agriculture and forestry [3]. Compared with other control measures, chemical control has the advantages of low cost and high adaptability, making it the main plant protection measure in agriculture and forestry [4,5]. However, as humans pay more attention to the environment, the problem of traditional pesticide formulations becomes more and more acute [6].…”