Findings on Cover Crops Reported by Researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Keeping Pace With Intensifying Agricultural Field Inundation Events: A Framework for Testing the Mitigative Capacity of Current Best Management Practices): Agriculture – Cover Crops

2026 APR 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Agriculture - Cover Crops. According to news originating from Urbana, Illinois, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “According to data from the USDA’s Risk Management Agency, crop insurance indemnities related to precipitation, hurricanes, excess moisture, and field inundation have totaled approximately $3.65 billion across Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa over the past decade. Of this amount, an estimated $924 million (25.31%) was attributed to losses that occurred in the spring months.”

Financial support for this research came from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “Cover crops and conservation tillage have been recommended as best management practices to mitigate financial impacts by reducing nutrient losses from erosion, runoff, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, preventing disease and physical plant damage, and enhancing field access through improved landscape drainage. However, further intensification of field inundation events is projected in these three states as we approach the midcentury, which may lessen the mitigative capacity of these practices. Few studies have tested the resilience of these land management practices to intensifying field inundation. We propose a framework that integrates guiding research questions and field experiments to determine whether the mitigative capacity of cover crops and conservation tillage keeps pace with intensifying field inundation events. We also explore agricultural biologicals, precision agriculture, the introduction of perennial crops, and drainage management as measures to address inefficiencies associated with the mitigative capacity of cover crops and conservation tillage that may be identified during experimentation.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This effort expands recommended best management practices and provides stakeholders with more options in an uncertain future due to climate change.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Keeping Pace With Intensifying Agricultural Field Inundation Events: A Framework for Testing the Mitigative Capacity of Current Best Management Practices. Global Change Biology, 2026;32(4). Global Change Biology can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Global Change Biology - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2486)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Connor Sible, Dept. of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States. Additional authors for this research include Christy Gibson, Gerald Mashange, Talon Becker, Doug Gucker, Bin Peng, Trent Ford and Esther Ngumbi.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70842. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher’s contact information for the journal Global Change Biology is: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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