Weather-associated production risk is a part of life for farmers and ranchers. Through heavy rain, hail, snow, winds, fire and drought, farming families prepare land, plant and harvest knowing their livelihoods are reliant on local weather conditions. In 2024, 27 weather disasters, each with damages exceeding $1 billion, struck the U.S. coast-to-coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 2024 ranked fourth in terms of the total inflation-adjusted economic impact of these events, with industries across the economy experiencing an estimated $182.7 billion hit (compared to $92.9 billion in 2023). With nearly 570 lives lost, these disasters will haunt impacted communities for years to come.
Overview of Estimated Crop Losses
Updated 2024 crop and rangeland damage estimates highlight the devastating impact of natural disasters on U.S. farm production. Total losses to crops and rangeland (including apiculture) from major 2024 weather and fire events exceeded $20.3 billion, accounting for 11.1% of NOAA’s total economic impact from disasters. Of this total, $10.9 billion in losses were covered by Risk Management Agency (RMA) programs as of February 2024, while approximately $9.4 billion remained uninsured, fell outside policy coverage limits, or did not qualify under existing risk management programs.
Of the $158 billion in total RMA-insured crop value (liabilities), 7% resulted in indemnity payments in 2024. Notably, crop insurance played a critical role in mitigating these losses, covering over 53% of weather-related damages, providing essential financial relief to affected farmers. Drought, excessive heat and wildfires led to over $11 billion in crop losses, while excessive precipitation, flooding and hurricanes accounted for $6.7 billion. Hailstorms caused $1.2 billion in losses, while freezes, cold, wet weather and frost resulted in $854 million in damages and tornadoes and excessive wind led to $291 million in crop losses.
AFBF crop loss estimates do not include infrastructure damage, livestock losses (besides apiculture), complete horticulture crop losses or timber losses associated with the selected causes of loss. Estimates should be viewed as a minimum baseline since data to estimate these other categories are not readily available. More comprehensive analysis on individual storms may be available from local land-grant universities. For example the University of Georgia estimated a total ag economic impact of $5.58 billion from Hurricane Helene and the University of Florida estimated ag production losses up to $643 million from Hurricane Milton. In both cases, estimates include losses across additional categories (such as livestock and timber) that are not included in this AFBF analysis.
Additional factors also contributed to significant crop losses, many of which were exacerbated by challenging weather conditions and are only partially reflected in RMA data. At least $43 million was lost to insects, $34 million to plant diseases, $24 million to wildlife and $19 million — primarily in wheat — was lost due to mycotoxins, toxins produced by fungi and other molds. However, these figures vastly underestimate the true extent of losses due to insurance coverage limitations, exclusions and reporting challenges. Many federal crop insurance policies do not cover wildlife damage unless explicitly included, and even when coverage exists, indemnities may be capped or denied if the loss is deemed preventable. Similarly, insect damage, plant diseases and mold-related losses are often intertwined with other covered causes, such as drought or flooding. For example, if drought weakens a crop and makes it more susceptible to insect infestations or wildlife foraging, the primary reported cause of loss may be drought, leaving the actual damage from insects or wildlife unaccounted for in indemnity data. As a result, these figures are likely to represent only a fraction of the total economic impact of these additional loss factors.
In 2024, Texas suffered the most significant agricultural losses for the third consecutive year, with total incurred damages exceeding $3.4 billion. Cotton was the hardest-hit crop, sustaining $1.8 billion in losses, followed by $768 million in forage and rangeland damage and $257 million in wheat losses. More than 66% of Texas’ total losses were attributed to widespread drought, excessive heat and hot wind, with the most severe impacts occurring between June and September.
Minnesota ranked second, with $1.45 billion in weather-related crop losses, including $678 million in corn, $528 million in soybeans, and $113 million in forage. Intense flooding in June drove more than 80% of the state’s total losses, severely impacting agricultural production across the Upper Midwest.
California followed closely behind, with $1.4 billion in crop losses. Over $660 million was attributed to drought and heat-related damage, while $500 million resulted from flooding and excessive precipitation. The state’s fruit and nut industry suffered over $860 million in losses, including $272 million in grapes, $204 million in pistachios, $94 million in almonds, and $66 million in mandarins and tangerines. Additionally, California rice losses totaled $176 million in 2024.
Losses by Crop Type
Figure 3 displays overall crop losses by type across all major weather events in 2023. The other grains category includes crops like oats and sorghum, the other oilseeds category includes canola, mustard, flaxseed, etc. and the all other category includes miscellaneous crops like tobacco, sugarcane, sugar beets and mint. Flooding and excessive precipitation across the Upper Midwest, combined with corn’s dominant role in U.S. agriculture, kept corn losses at the top, totaling $3.85 billion in 2024. Forage losses ranked second, reaching $3.8 billion, driven primarily by widespread drought conditions in states such as Texas, South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma. Soybeans followed in third, with $3.2 billion in losses, largely due to the same flood-induced conditions that impacted corn. Cotton ranked fourth, with $2.5 billion in losses, primarily attributed to drought in Texas and Oklahoma and hurricane-related damage across the Southeast.
Losses Due to Drought, Wildfire and Other Heat-Related Causes
Despite the widespread impact of flooding and hurricanes throughout 2024, drought and heat-related conditions — including excessive heat, prolonged sun exposure, hot wind and wildfires — accounted for the largest share of total crop losses, reaching over $11 billion. Of this amount, $5.3 billion (47%) was covered by RMA insurance policies, while $5.7 billion (53%) fell outside of coverage.
While drought wasn’t as dominant a concern as in previous years, it remained a significant challenge, particularly in late September and October, when more than 27% of the country was classified under severe (D2) drought or worse. The hardest hit crops in this category were forage and rangeland, which suffered $3.7 billion in losses, cotton at $1.7 billion and soybeans at $1.5 billion.
Losses Due to Hurricanes, Tropical Storms, Flooding and Excessive Precipitation
Record flooding across the Upper Midwest and horrific hurricanes across the Southeast drove much of the year’s agricultural natural disaster-related news cycle. When combined with the numerous other torrential rain and severe storms across the country these causes resulted in $6.7 billion in crop losses. Of this, $4.3 billion (63%) was covered by RMA insurance policies while $2.5 (38%) billion fell outside of coverage. Corn faced the biggest hit under this category at over $2 billion, followed by soybeans at $1.5 billion, fruits and nuts at $707 million and cotton at $621 million, with the former two linked to Midwest flooding and latter two linked to Southeast hurricanes.
Disaster Assistance in the Pipeline
For the past three years, farmers have faced billions in uncovered losses due to natural disasters, highlighting critical gaps in federal disaster relief. In 2022, producers suffered over $10.4 billion in uncovered losses, representing damages that either fell outside crop insurance coverage levels or did not qualify under existing risk management programs. To address these challenges, President Biden signed the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act on Dec. 29, 2022, allocating $3.74 billion in aid for producers who lost crops, trees, bushes and vines due to qualifying disasters that year. However, this assistance covered only 36% of the total uncovered losses, leaving a $6.74 billion shortfall that has yet to be fully addressed.
In 2023, farmers faced $9.9 billion in uncovered losses, followed by the estimated $9.4 billion in 2024, bringing the three-year uncovered total to over $26 billion in losses left outside insurance and past disaster aid programs.
A major step forward came with the passage of the American Relief Act of 2025, signed into law in the early hours of Dec. 21, 2024, which provides $21 billion in natural disaster aid. This funding is intended to cover losses of revenue, quality and production for crops — including milk, on-farm stored commodities, prevented planting acres and harvested but adulterated wine grapes — as well as losses to trees, bushes and vines caused by disasters in 2023 and 2024.
While this funding is a much-needed lifeline for struggling farmers, it still leaves a gap of at least $4 billion to make crop producers whole, dating back to 2022. Additionally, as of Feb. 12, 2025, USDA has not yet released details on how or when the $21 billion in disaster aid will be distributed, prolonging the financial uncertainty for farmers who continue to grapple with unpaid bills from previous years. With 2025 shaping up to be another unpredictable year, timely implementation of these funds will be critical to stabilizing farm operations and supporting rural economies.
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AFBF – 2025
