Modeling the Impacts of Changing Agricultural Patterns on Rainfall and Temperature in North Dakota

Global climate change has been an issue of much concern for many years now with human activity being the main contributor to this phenomenon. However, some evidence in the United States Midwest suggests that there has been a decline in summer temperatures and a rise in summer rainfall as a result of increasing agricultural production in this region. This research applies a system of simultaneous equations more specifically a seemingly unrelated Tobit regression model to understand how land-use change and increasing crop production may be contributing to these changes in rainfall and temperature in the months of June, July, August and September in the state of North Dakota. The findings from the study indicate that corn production to some extent is contributing to increasing precipitation and declining temperatures in North Dakota