Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
ALAN W. HODGES
Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
JAMES W. JONES
Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
(Manuscript received 19 May 1997, in final form 11 July 1997)
ABSTRACT
The influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on crop production in the southeastern United States
was studied to identify crops that are vulnerable to ENSO-related weather variability and therefore likely to
benefit from application of ENSO-based climate forecasts. The historical (1960–95) response of total value and
its components (yield, area harvested, and price) to ENSO phases and quarterly sea surface temperature anomalies
(SST) in the eastern equatorial Pacific was analyzed for six crops (peanut, tomato, cotton, tobacco, corn, and
soybean) in four states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina). ENSO phase significantly influenced
corn and tobacco yields, the areas of soybean and cotton harvested, and the values of corn, soybean, peanut,
and tobacco. ENSO phases explained an average shift of $212 million or 25.9% of the value of corn. Canonical
correlation analysis identified significant responses of corn, soybean, and cotton yields, and peanut value to SST
across the region; and of peanut and tobacco yields, and tomato and soybean values in particular states.
2. Approach
a. Data
1) CROPS
Historical records of yields, area harvested, price, and
total value of production of six economically important
crops (cotton, corn, peanut, soybean, tomato, and to-
bacco) in a four-state (Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and
South Carolina) region (Table 1) were examined. His-
torical state-level crop production, areas planted and
FIG. 1. Raw and smoothed time series (a) and resulting anomalies harvested, and price statistics are from the United States
(b) of Florida corn yields, 1960–95. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricul-
tural Statistics Service (NASS). Data cover 1960–95
except for tomato areas, prices and values, and all to-
capacity, trade agreements to offset local shortages in bacco data, which were not available for 1995 at the
food supplies, and planning to provide assistance to ad- time of analysis. Alabama stopped reporting tobacco
versely affected producers and populations. data in 1981. Mean yields for each state were calculated
In the southeastern U.S. coastal plain, El Niño years from total production and areas harvested. Where crop
tend to be cool and La Niña years tend to be warm values were reported for individual states, the average
between October and April (Ropelewski and Halpert price each year was calculated as the total value divided
1986, 1996; Kiladis and Diaz 1989; Sittel 1994a). Al- by the total production of the four-state region. Other-
though the influence on rainfall is spatially less consis- wise, national average prices were used, and total value
tent, El Niño years tend to be wet and La Niña years was calculated from national prices and reported pro-
dry during these months. Although the ENSO signal in duction for each state. Prices were adjusted to a 1995
the region is strongest in the fall and winter months, basis using annual values of the U.S. urban consumer
some evidence exists that La Niña summers tend to be price index.
slightly wetter than normal (Sittel 1994a,b). ENSO in-
fluence on rainfall has a lagged effect on streamflows
2) ENSO
in the region, as Zorn and Waylen (1996) showed for
the Santa Fe River in northern Florida. This study analyzed responses of crop variables to
The objective of this exploratory study of ENSO in- both categorical and continuous measures of ENSO. Sea
surface temperature anomalies (SST, 8C) averaged over includes October–December. The period from October
the region of the eastern equatorial Pacific known as 1957 to September 1995 includes 10 El Niño (beginning
NINO3 (58N to 58S, 1508 to 908W) are commonly used 1957, 1963, 1965, 1969, 1972, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1987,
as a continuous measure of ENSO strength. Monthly and 1991) and 7 La Niña events (beginning 1964, 1967,
SST values obtained from the National Oceanic and 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, and 1988).
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Predic-
tion Center were aggregated into quarterly means.
b. Data preparation
ENSO phases (El Niño, neutral and La Niña) serve
as a categorical measure of ENSO activity. This study The analyses required us to separate each historical
used the COAPS (Center for Ocean–Atmospheric Pre- yield series into a trend that reflects changes in man-
diction Studies) classification based on monthly SST agement and anomalies about the trend due to weather
anomalies in the region from 1508 to 908W and 48N to variability. Crop management changes in response to
48S, smoothed into 5-month running means (Sittel price fluctuations and the availability of new technology
1994b). A year (October–September) is classified as El in a way that is difficult to fit to a simple regression
Niño (La Niña) if SST anomalies are at least 10.58C function; there is no theoretical basis for selecting one
(#20.58C for La Niña) for at least 6 consecutive months functional form over another. A harmonic smoothing
and if this 6-month period starts before October and technique was therefore applied to separate higher-fre-
FIG. 2. Spectral densities of raw ( ) and smoothed (– – –) data and anomalies (········) of
Florida corn yields, 1960–95, smoothed with a five-point Hamming window.
MARCH 1998 HANSEN ET AL. 407
c. Analyses
1) RESPONSE TO ENSO PHASE
TABLE 3. Canonical correlationa between crop yield anomalies and quarterly SST.
FIG. 5. Box plots showing 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100th percentiles and means (solid line) of crop
value anomalies with a significant response to ENSO phase, summed across states, 1960–95.
Means of ENSO phases with no common letters below their respective box-and-whiskers are
significantly different (P 5 0.05).
results identified ENSO signals in soybean and cotton cotton, and peanut harvested (Table 2). Anomalies of
yields that ANOVA did not identify, but did not confirm areas of soybean harvested averaged 96 123 ha (8.3%)
the ENSO signal in tobacco yields. The results suggest higher in neutral than in La Niña years (Fig. 4). ENSO
that SST had a strong influence on yields of the six phase also accounted for substantial shifts in areas har-
crops in Florida (R 5 0.871) and a weaker influence in vested for tobacco (2777 ha, or 5.3% higher in neutral
South Carolina (R 5 0.822). than La Niña years) and cotton (40 861 ha, or 8.7%
higher in years following neutral than following El Niño
phases). Because CCA did not show a significant overall
b. Prices
relationship between harvested area anomalies and quar-
The results of ANOVA (Table 2) and CCA did not terly SST series, relationships of individual crops and
support the hypothesis that ENSO influences prices of states to SST were not analyzed.
the six crops studied. Therefore, price response to SST
was not analyzed for individual crops.
d. Total value
Crop value is the product of yield, area harvested,
c. Areas harvested
and price. ANOVA results suggest that ENSO phase
ANOVA showed that the ENSO phase 2 yr prior to influenced the value of all crops except tomato and cot-
harvest influenced anomalies of the areas of soybean, ton (Table 2, Fig. 5). The rainfed grain crops (corn,
410 JOURNAL OF CLIMATE VOLUME 11
TABLE 5. Canonical correlationa between crop value anomalies and quarterly SST.
soybean, and peanut) showed the greatest response to prices. This would seem to contradict the results of Kep-
ENSO phase (Table 4). penne (1995) who presented evidence of a strong re-
Canonical correlation analysis showed a highly sig- lationship between monthly SOI (Southern Oscillation
nificant overall response to SST (Table 5). Peanut was index) and U.S. soybean futures prices, both prefiltered
the only crop that showed a significant response to SST using singular spectrum analysis (an adaptation of prin-
for the whole region. The significant response of Florida cipal component analysis applied to time-series data).
crop value to SST suggests that, for the six crops stud- The price (futures versus farmgate) and ENSO (SOI
ied, it is the most vulnerable of the four states to ENSO- versus SST and phases) data, and the methods used were
related climate variability. different than in this study. However, ANOVA would
indicate a significant 2-yr lag price response to ENSO
phase if only soybean prices were considered, with the
4. Discussion
average price $17.15 Mg21 higher in the second year
Results of this study support the hypothesis that following La Niña than neutral or El Niño years (Fig.
ENSO influences the total value of crops in the south- 7). This illustrates the multiplicity problem that arises
eastern Unites States. The influence of ENSO on yields when examining response to ENSO for several crops
can be explained more easily than its influence on areas across several locations. In this study, appropriate mea-
harvested. Corn yields tended to be high in La Niña sures to avoid spurious results for the set of crop prices
years and low in the years that follow La Niñas (Fig. resulted in a loss of power to identify an ENSO signal
3). We attribute this largely to ENSO influence on June in a particular crop price.
rainfall. Corn yield is most susceptible to water stress One possible explanation for the significant response
at tasseling, which occurs in mid-June through most of of areas of soybean harvested to ENSO phase relates
the study region. June rain tends to be high in La Niña to the fishing industry off the southwest coast of South
years (Fig. 6a) and in the years that follow El Niño America. Abnormally high sea surface temperatures as-
events (Fig. 6c) in the main crop-growing region of the sociated with El Niño events lead to reduced harvests
Georgia coastal plain. The high yields following neutral of anchovy and tuna, thus increasing the demand and
years relative to years following La Niñas (Fig. 3) may price for substitutes for fish protein for livestock feed
be due to greater residual soil moisture from relatively (Philander 1990; Keppenne 1995). The increased soy-
high May rainfall (Fig. 6b). bean area observed 2 yr after El Niño events (Fig. 4)
Results of this study did not support the hypothesis may be a lagged response to the resulting increase in
that ENSO influences crop values by influencing their demand.
FIG. 6. Box plots showing 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100th percentiles and means (solid line) of (a)
June rainfall by current ENSO phase, (b) May rainfall by preceding ENSO phase, and (c) June
rainfall by preceding year ENSO phase, Tifton, Georgia, 1960–95.
MARCH 1998 HANSEN ET AL. 411
REFERENCES