ABSTRACT
The Great Flood of 1993 had tremendous impacts on Midwestern agriculture, and financial losses exceeded those of all other sectors (see Chapter 9). The impacts flowed through every facet of agriculture beginning with sizable erosion of soils, fertilizers, and herbicides (as discussed in Chapter 5). Extreme wetness and flooding severely reduced crop yields, and this affected farmers and their families (as discussed in Chapter 10). The ensuing impacts hampered Midwestern agribusinesses and shippers (discussed in Chapters 8 and 9), affected the grain market, and ultimately influenced federal agricultural policies. This assessment focuses on the farming activities and the corn and soybean crops in the Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin), and the chapter begins with a chronology of events that affected agricultural practices and crop development during the growing season, followed by a discussion of the resulting effects on crop yields, the crop insurance industry, the commodity market, total grain production, and losses suffered by the agricultural sector. Finally, there is a discussion of a major outcome of the flood: its effect on U.S. policy addressing weather-induced losses to agriculture.
