No abstract

Extreme weather and climate events are likely to cause disastrous consequences for agriculture and food security. This study investigated the impacts of drought in year 2012 on corn yield in the United States Corn Belt by integrating county-level crop yield data from the USDA NASS Quick Stats database and precipitation data from the NCDC GHCN-Daily database. It is found that precipitation over an 8-week period in corn growth stages is critical for corn yield, the logarithm of precipitation during the period explained 55% of corn yield variation. The results indicated the importance of water supply in corn silking stage, and provided an approach to assess the impacts of drought on corn yield quantitatively.