Extreme soil moisture risk and subsurface drainage adoption: a structural Ricardian analysis

Steven Wallander, Daniel Szmurlo and Benjamin M. Gramig

Chapter 14 in Handbook on Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation, and Adaptation in Agriculture, 2026, pp 304-329 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Subsurface “tile” drain systems are expected to play an increasingly important role in managing excess precipitation as farmers face intense rain events. Notably, tile drainage is a key feature of some of the most valuable cropland in the United States. To examine the link between tile drainage and climate, we use field-level survey data for major crops to estimate a structural Ricardian model—an econometric model of cropland rental rates conditional on historical climate variables. We compare five specifications of the climate variables, including two specifications that account for extreme precipitation and extreme soil moisture. In a result that mirrors earlier work on irrigation, we statistically reject the pooling of data on fields with and without tile drainage. The specification that incorporates measures of extreme soil moisture fits the data best and shows that tile drainage may mitigate the expected impacts of extreme soil moisture.

Keywords: Subsurface Drainage; Tile Drains; Farmland Values; Agricultural Risk Management; Climate Adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035344963
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