Flooding Impacts Farmland and Productivity Years Down the Line

When levees fail and land floods, it can devastate the area for years afterward. Now, scientists have announced that when it comes to flood recovery, soil damages should also be assessed-especially when it comes to agriculture.

The researchers conducted a study on a 195-acre O'Bryan Ridge gully field area in Missouri. They found that the region actually suffered a permanent loss of 30 percent of its agricultural productivity capacity after a flooding event. In fact, after reclamation in the spring of 2013, the middle and lowest parts of the gullies were still not suitable for row crops.

"With the increase in extreme weather events, there is an increased likelihood of future use of the New Madrid Floodway to manage Misissippi River flooding," said Ken Olson, the lead researcher, in a news release. "The soil damages and gully fields on O'Bryan Ridge will happen again and require more costly restoration."

That's not all, either. The researchers caution that the current repair and restoration efforts are restoring some of the lost soil productivity and production capacity, but that they won't prevent a repeat of damages in the future.

"The new farmland that was created is either too erosive or too low in soil productivity and is no longer suited to continuous soybean production without conservation practices and a crop rotation," said Olson. "A terrace system and contour farming with grassed waterways will likely be needed to retain production under continuous soybean on any remaining slope lands on the tract."

The findings reveal that when it comes to flooding, soil restoration should be part of recovery efforts. It also shows that farmland should be taken into account when creating structures to prevent floods in the future.

The findings are published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.

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