**Author details**

*Land Use Change and Sustainability*

**6. Summary**

than grazing lands.

state had the lowest price per hectare acre and value increases. For example, in the

ethanol demand, spiking crop prices, and boosted US agricultural export opportunities [39, 40]. Maize-producing regions, which are the main input source for ethanol plants, had the greatest land value gain. For example, in Nebraska and South Dakota, market value increased within 50 miles of ethanol plants where

However the climbing land values, on the other hand, could raise the farmer debt to buy new farm land. To repay debt from increased land purchase prices, farmers could be forced to intensify crop and livestock production for higher returns, regardless of long-term consequences to land use sustainability. But it is very important to note if such extensive agricultural expansion would be conducive to cropping system and environment. Especially in Northern Great Plains, where periodic patterns of drought persist, such agricultural practices may not be appro-

tors such as better agricultural input and equipment supplies, increasing

priate if expansions are not in more suitable climatic and soil conditions.

Along with economic opportunities to local families, recent technological improvements, land ownership structure changes, climate variability, various governmental policies, and aging workforce are major driving factors for changing grasslands to croplands. Along with these factors, it may also be driven by a desire to increase the value of the land. For example, irrigated cropland had a higher value

Higher temperature, changing precipitation pattern, increasing CO2 levels, and extreme climatic events like drought directly affect food production and land use in the NGP. For example, ranchers who faced severe drought during 2012 may have sold their livestock and may have plowed their grassland in order to produce an economic return. Our study shows that South Dakota had higher grassland conversion rates than Nebraska. During the first 6-year period, 700,000 ha grassland was changed to cropland in South Dakota compared with only 250,000 ha in Nebraska. Similarly, 210,000 ha newly expanded cropland was estimated during the later 2-year period in South Dakota. Contrarily, Nebraska had only 110,000 ha of new cropland. The higher conversion rates in South Dakota than Nebraska are attributed to the type of land available for conversion. In Nebraska, between 2006 and 2012 and between 2012 and 2014, 76.1% and 83.8% of the change occurred on soil are considered suitable for cropland (LCC ≤ 4), respectively. However, in South Dakota, over 90% of the land that was converted was considered suitable for croplands. Again, soil types with higher LCC values are not considered suitable and can be less sustainable.

In conclusion, the majority of grasslands converted to the crop land during study

period can be managed for sustainable food production with the recommended farming practices. However appropriate soil and crop management research is needed for the portion of converted land that is at higher risk to prevent degradation.

Support was provided by USDA-AFRI (2017-05485), USDA-NRCS (69-3A75-

Thus, the record land market value gain observed in South Dakota and Nebraska varied by region. These gains in land market value could be fueled by various fac-

from 2006 to 2014.

northwest, land value increased from \$1137 to \$2337 ha<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>

ethanol production was highly concentrated [41].

**12**

**Acknowledgements**

285), and the South Dakota State University.

Deepak R. Joshi1 , David E. Clay1 \*, Alexander Smart2 , Sharon A. Clay1 , Tulsi P. Kharel3 and Umakanta Mishra4

1 Department of Agronomy, Horticulture, and Plant Science, South Dakota State University, USA

2 Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University, USA

3 Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, USA

4 Ecological Science and Environmental Risk Department, Argonne National Laboratory, USA

\*Address all correspondence to: david.clay@sdstate.edu

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
