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Cited by 31Genetically Modified Organisms ResearchAgricultural Innovations and PracticesCrop Yield and Soil Fertility

Development, Adoption, and Management of Drought-Tolerant Corn in the United States

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McFadden, Jonathan, Smith, David, Wechsler, Seth, Wallander, Steven, McFadden, Jonathan, Smith, David, Wechsler, Seth, Wallander, Steven·2019·Unknown
DOI 10.22004/ag.econ.288289
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Abstract

Drought, a recurring source of crop yield losses and crop failure, often prompts Federal natural disaster and crop insurance payments to U.S. farmers. Few ways exist to substantially reduce yield losses due to drought, although a new tool has recently become available. Drought tolerance produced using conventional breeding methods was first commercially introduced in U.S. corn hybrids in 2011. Genetically engineered (GE) drought tolerance was introduced in hybrids in 2012 but did not become broadly available until 2013. However, the vast majority of drought-tolerant (DT) corn planted in 2016 had one or more GE traits (e.g., herbicide tolerance and/or insect resistance). By 2016, 22 percent of total U.S. planted corn acreage was drought tolerant. Adoption is more concentrated in drought-prone regions of the United States, despite the hybrids’ limited abilities to protect against extreme-or-worse droughts. Significant DT corn acreage is also located in non-drought-prone regions and the broader Corn Belt. This report documents the development, adoption, and management of DT corn in the United States, emphasizing the roles of recent and frequent exposure to drought; moisture-conservation practices; GE seed traits and pricing; and irrigation.

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  • The iterative empirical-modelling framework is grounded and motivated by successful outcomes achieved from applications to coordinate the development of improved maize hybrids and agronomy for the heterogeneous environments of the US corn-belt.

    “Importantly, the iterative empirical-modelling framework is grounded and motivated by successful outcomes achieved from applications to coordinate the development of improved maize hybrids and agronomy for the heterogeneous environments of the US corn-belt (McFadden et al. 2019; Boyer et al. 2013; Cooper et al. 2014a, 2020; Gaffney et al. 2015).”

    From Tackling G × E × M interactions to close on-farm yield-gaps: creating novel pathways for crop improvement by predicting contributions of genetics and management to crop productivity (2021) · cites this paper as McFadden et al. 2019

    The section ‘Research Underlying the Development of Drought Tolerance in Corn’ says that several drought-tolerant hybrids were developed with the aid of experimental designs and crop and computational models. The Introduction and Conclusions also describe adoption alongside moisture-conservation practices in the Corn Belt. The paper does not establish that an iterative empirical-modelling framework coordinated hybrid development and agronomy, or attribute successful outcomes to that framework. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Practical strategies for implementing some of the predictions for the U.S. corn-belt maize target system have been successfully implemented.

    “Practical strategies for implementing some of the predictions for this target system have been successfully implemented (Cooper et al., 2014b;Gaffney et al., 2015;McFadden et al., 2019).”

    From Integrating genetic gain and gap analysis to predict improvements in crop productivity (2020) · cites this paper as McFadden et al., 2019

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
McFadden, J., Smith, D., Wechsler, S., Wallander, S., McFadden, J., Smith, D., Wechsler, S., & Wallander, S.
Venue
Unknown
Publisher
Unknown
Published
2019
DOI
10.22004/ag.econ.288289
OpenAlex
W2943533665
Cited by
31
References
2
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 1
Type
posted content
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc-nd
Locations
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Economic Information Bulletin (submittedVersion)
  • AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • North Carolina State University
  • Farm Service Agency
  • National Agricultural Statistics Service
  • Economic Research Service
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Genetically Modified Organisms Research
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agricultural Innovations and Practices
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Crop Yield and Soil Fertility
Keywords
drought tolerance, genetically modified crops, technology adoption, maize hybrids, drought-prone areas, irrigation, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, seed pricing, crop yield loss, drought insurance

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