Calculating Crop Losses (Research)

Examining the long-term impact of diseases on soybeans to provide accurate crop loss assessment

Image credit: Adobe Stock

Problem

How can losses to soybean crops be measured more accurately to advance research and policy efforts?

The United States is the world's primary soybean producer and second-largest importer.
Quantitative information on crop losses is scarce, hard to obtain, seldom standardized, and a challenge to compile and compare across states, agroecosystems, and regions.

Findings

Researchers examined the long-term impact of soybean diseases on production by analyzing historical soybean loss data and assessing the economic impacts of 23 common soybean diseases from 28 soybean-producing states in the United States from 1996 to 2016.

They calculated the total economic losses due to soybean diseases in the nation, ﬁnding that the losses amounted to more than $95 billion.
The impact in the northern states—$80.89 billion—was greater than losses in the southern region, which amounted to $14.59 billion.

Impact

The analysis of historical soybean loss data due to diseases helps soybean pathologists and breeders, government and funding agencies, and educators prioritize research, policy, and educational efforts in soybean disease management.

Accurate crop loss assessment helps in devising appropriate management strategies to ensure farmer proﬁtability, safeguarding the nation's export soybean crop, preserving global food security, and establishing research priorities.

Related Research Area: Advanced Agricultural and Food Systems

Research Credit

Team

Paul Esker, Ananda Bandara, Dilooshi Weerasooriya, Carl Bradley, Tom Allen

Participating Departments

Plant Pathology

Partners

University of Kentucky
Mississippi State University

Competitive Funding

United Soybean Board

Federal and State Appropriations

USDA NIFA Hatch Project PEN04660, Accession #1016474

Emerging Discoveries

Penn State researchers find significant economic losses due to soybean diseases

April 16, 2020

Economic losses due to soybean diseases in the United States from 1996 to 2016 amounted to more than $95 billion, according to a team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences who examined the long-term impact of soybean diseases on production in the U.S.

Research suggests foliar fungicides help increase soybean yield in some regions

January 06, 2022

While previous studies have shown little economic benefit associated with using foliar fungicides in soybean as a preventive measure, new research aided by a Penn State plant pathologist suggests otherwise, especially in southern regions.