How do tornadoes affect agriculture?

In the relatively small area they actually cover, it is devastating. The crop can be laid over, wind-whipped, or even completely removed from the soil. Tornadoes also destroy buildings, storage structures such as grain bins, tractors and other equipment, and take the lives of people and animals in their path.

In the US, tornadoes typically cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage every year, along with taking a number of lives. Since they are an extremely localized phenomenon, the total effect on US agriculture as a whole is comparatively minimal.