Utilizing Nature’s Nurture? Lightning, Nitrogen Supply, and Crop Production

Abstract

Lightning provides nitrogen fixation that fertilizes crops, but there have been no estimates on how this naturally provided input affects actual production and incentivizes farm behaviors. Based on a decades-long panel of US counties with geo-referenced lightning activities, I find lightning only significantly increases soybean yields; but the yield of corn, heavily reliant on commercial fertilizer, is unaffected. The nitrogen windfall does not influence fertilizer application on both crops, but extra nitrogen provided by strong lightning significantly stimulates corn expansion. In addition to short-run implications on nitrogen management, the results imply potential long-run benefits as lightning co-evolves with climate change.