Protecting the Breadbasket with Trees? The Effect of the Great Plains Shelterbelt Project on Agriculture

Tianshu Li

Land Economics, 2021, vol. 97, issue 2, 321-344

Abstract: Wind erosion is detrimental to agriculture. Planting shelterbelt trees is a common strategy to protect vulnerable areas. I estimate the impact of shelterbelts on agriculture while instrumenting the endogeneity of planted location with a designated zone under the Great Plains Shelterbelt Project—a massive tree-planting operation implemented in 1935–1942. I find a shift from cropland to pasture associated with higher shelterbelt coverage due to differential productivity changes in livestock and crop production. The revenue increase from livestock was contributed by cattle, while the decline in crop production mainly occurred in western counties owing to obstacles to adopting new irrigation technology.

JEL-codes: Q15 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
Note: DOI: 10.3368/le.97.2.321
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://le.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/97/2/321
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:landec:v:97:y:2021:i:2:p:321-344

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Land Economics from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().