Comprehensive Economic Impacts of Wild Pigs on Producers of Six Crops in the South-Eastern US and California

Sophie C. McKee (), John J. Mayer and Stephanie A. Shwiff
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Sophie C. McKee: USDA/APHIS/WS National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA
John J. Mayer: Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC 29808, USA
Stephanie A. Shwiff: USDA/APHIS/WS National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-30

Abstract: Wild pigs ( Sus scrofa ) cause damage to agricultural crops in their native range as well as in the portions of the globe where they have been introduced. In the US, states with the highest introduced wild pig populations are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. The present study summarizes the first survey-based effort to value the full extent of wild pig damage to producers of six crops in these eleven US states. The survey was distributed by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service in the summer of 2022 to a sample of 11,495 producers of corn ( Zea mays ), soybeans ( Glycine max ), wheat ( Triticum spp.), rice ( Oryza sativa ), peanuts ( Arachis hypogaea ), and sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) in these 11 states. Our findings suggest that the economic burden of wild pigs on producers of these crops is substantial and not limited to the direct and most identifiable categories of crop damage (i.e., production value lost due to depredation, trampling and rooting). We estimate that the annual cost to producers of these six crops in the surveyed states in 2021 was almost USD 700 million.

Keywords: agricultural damage; feral swine; Sus scrofa; wild boar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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