Researchers want to know how co-locating solar and crops — a practice known as "agrivoltaics" — could benefit farmers and be a salve to a growing strain in the Corn Belt, where rural residents and towns are pushing back on solar projects that can often take farmland out of production.
Climate change is redrawing the agricultural map of the United States. As corn becomes less economically viable with changing Midwestern weather patterns, farmers look to a more diverse future.
The drought of 2012 was the worst since at least 1988, spanning the entire Corn Belt, from Ohio to Wyoming, and costing the agribusiness industry billions of dollars.
After making record profits from 2007 through 2013, farmers in Champaign County, Ill., who rent their land are likely to lose money on both corn and soybeans in this year and next, said a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign economist.
The average value for farm real estate climbed 9.4 percent from 2012, according to the 2013 Land Value Summary released late last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The United States Department of Agriculture is set to release the 2013 report of agricultural land values on August 2, 2013. If trends continue as they have been for the past 10 years, then the value of agricultural land – especially in the Midwest region – will see a continuing increase.
