Agriculture has always had to contend with natural disasters. However, how these disasters affect agricultural producers and state economies has not been reported to provide consistent and comparable information. This issue presents examples of disaster impacts, methods to capture these impacts and aids for mitigating future disasters.

Arkansas experienced extreme summer temperatures and large precipitation deficits in both 2010 and 2011. Drought conditions affected the entire state, but drought impacts were most prolonged in the southern portion of the state. This article describes the main impacts of the Arkansas drought on trees, cattle and hay production, and row crop agriculture.

This article examines the estimated direct financial impact of the Texas drought on agriculture, some challenges in estimating these impacts, and a few lessons learned from the impacts of a number of droughts.

Losses caused by natural disasters such as drought, excessive rains or hurricanes have had dramatic impacts on agricultural revenue and costs and the well-being of humans and animals. Losses of capital assets and other farm infrastructure have had far-reaching effects on economic viability. Louisiana State University Agricultural Center personnel are often called upon to assess the economic damage resulting from the occurrence of such natural disasters. Challenges in estimating agricultural losses from these disasters are discussed.

Drought impacts can be far-reaching and affect energy, recreation, municipalities, industry, and residential households, the severity of which is affected by agent and agency responses in the form of mitigation and adaptation. This article examines such responses in semi-arid and arid environments, particularly within the southwestern United States and Australia.