Marginal cropland in Nebraska

Keywords: marginal land, multi-criteria evaluation, google earth engine, crop production, agriculture, conservation
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 56

Abstract

Marginal land is broadly defined as land that is suboptimal due to low or variable crop production and biophysical characteristics, providing less economical returns than surrounding cornland. This study focused on cultivated cropland containing two crops, corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max), as they are regularly the two highest produced crops in Nebraska and are frequently planted in a crop rotation. A multi-criteria evaluation (MCE), consisting of crop production and biophysical attributes, was performed using Google Earth Engine. From the MCE, marginal cropland for corn and soybeans in Nebraska was identified and classified. This study improves upon previous attempts to identify marginal agricultural land in Nebraska by increasing spatial and temporal resolution, providing a programmatic and replicable methodology, and confining the classification to existing cropland. The implications of these findings are useful for policy makers and agricultural extension efforts in Nebraska to identify opportunities for conservation and biofuel production on cultivated land.