Agronomic And Economic Effects Of Wetlands On Crop Yields Using Precision Agriculture Data

Wetland drainage has become an increasingly important conservation issue in the Prairie Pothole region of North America. Financial incentives for annual crop production have driven wetland drainage for decades, to the detriment of wetland ecosystem services such as wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration. Past studies which model the farmer’s decision to drain wetlands often assume that drained wetlands will produce similar yields to upland regions of the field. We combine precision yield data and detailed wetland mapping data to estimate the agronomic and economic impacts of wetlands and their buffer areas on crop yields and farm financial performance in Saskatchewan. We find that yields in wetland basins are relatively lower than the field’s average yield. Wetland drainage can mitigate these yield effects, but yields in drained wetland basins still fail to meet the field’s average yield. These effects can extend more than 50m beyond the wetland boundary. We include these wetland and buffer yield effects in a farm financial analysis and find that these effects impact the net benefits and economic incentives for wetland drainage. The results demonstrate the importance of considering wetland and buffer zone yield effects in wetland drainage decisions and improve our understanding of wetland conservation costs.