Changes in climate and extreme weather are already increasing challenges for agriculture.
This technical bulletin was developed specifically to meet the unique needs of agricultural producers, and provide educators and service providers in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States with information and resources to help farmers increase their resilience to weather extremes and a changing climate. It provides a flexible, structured, and self-guided process to identify and assess climate change impacts, challenges, opportunities, and farm-level adaptation tactics for improving responses to extreme and uncertain conditions.
This process could be used by farmers, producers, service providers, and educators to develop appropriate individual responses for their farms and location.The report includes a synthesis of adaptation strategies and approaches that serves as a “menu” of potential responses to assist practitioners in providing a clear rationale for making decisions by connecting planned actions to broad climate adaptation concepts. Adaptation responses can address both short- and long-range time frames and extend from incremental adjustments of existing practices to major alterations that transform the entire farm operation. Example adaptation tactics (prescriptive actions for agricultural production systems common in the region) are provided.
Effects from Climate Change
Changes in climate and extreme weather have already occurred and are increasing challenges for agriculture nationally and globally. Many of the impacts are expected to continue or intensify in the future.
The effects of a changing climate and enhanced climate variability are already being seen across the Midwestern and Northeastern United States over the past century: temperatures have risen across all seasons; growing seasons have become longer; precipitation patterns have changed; and extreme precipitation events have increased in frequency and severity. Because of the sensitivity of agriculture to weather and climate conditions, these impacts can have substantial direct and indirect effects on farm production and profitability.
Adaptation in Action
As the scientific understanding of the effects and consequences of climate variability and change improves, agricultural producers are searching for ways to apply this information to planning and decision-making and put it into action. Broad descriptions of climate change effects are widely published in scientific literature, but each farm will be uniquely impacted and will require customized responses.
This report describes the role of adaptation in agriculture in responding to the challenges and opportunities associated with climate variability and change and provides context for the menu of adaptation strategies and approaches. Adaptation actions and responses can simultaneously provide co-benefits towards multiple goals, such as: soil health improvement; water quality protection; wildlife habitat management; or greenhouse gas mitigation; and may or may not be distinguishable from on-farm practices already planned or underway.
Strategies and approaches
One of the major challenges of adapting agricultural systems to climate change is translating broad science-based concepts of climate adaptation into specific, tangible on-farm actions. This report addresses that challenge by providing a synthesis of adaptation responses from the literature, which are organized in a tiered structure from broad concepts to specific actions. Eight broad strategies, each with their own more specific approaches, were synthesized from dozens of scientific papers that discussed adaptation actions at a variety of scales and locations.
The strategies and approaches were reviewed by a diverse pool of producers, researchers, and other professionals from across the Midwest and Northeast and are broadly applicable across a diversity of commodities and production systems. These strategies and approaches are designed to serve as “stepping stones” to enable producers to understand the rationale for making decisions and taking appropriate actions to adapt to climate variability and change.
Example tactics are provided in the menu as illustrations of a few of the possible actions that could be implemented for climate adaptation.
Menu of Adaptation Strategies and Approaches Developed for Agricultural Systems
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Approach 1.1: Maintain and improve soil health.
Approach 1.2: Protect water quality.
Approach 1.3: Match practices to water supply and demand.
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Approach 2.1: Reduce the impacts of pests and pathogens on crops.
Approach 2.2: Reduce competition from weedy and invasive species.
Approach 2.3: Maintain livestock health and performance.
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Approach 3.1: Adjust the timing or location of on-farm activities.
Approach 3.2: Manage crops to cope with warmer and drier conditions.
Approach 3.3: Manage livestock to cope with warmer and drier conditions.
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Approach 4.1: Reduce peak flow, runoff velocity, and soil erosion.
Approach 4.2: Reduce severity or extent of water-saturated soil and flood damage.
Approach 4.3: Reduce severity or extent of wind damage to soils and crops.
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Approach 5.1: Maintain or restore natural ecosystems.
Approach 5.2: Promote biological diversity across the landscape.
Approach 5.3: Enhance landscape connectivity.
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Approach 6.1: Diversify crop or livestock species, varieties or breeds, or products.
Approach 6.2: Diversify existing systems with new combinations of varieties or breeds.
Approach 6.3: Switch to commodities expected to be better suited to future conditions.
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Approach 7.1: Minimize potential impacts following disturbance.
Approach 7.2: Realign severely altered systems toward future conditions.
Approach 7.3: Alter lands in agricultural production.
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Approach 8.1: Expand or improve water systems to match water demand and supply.
Approach 8.2: Use structures to increase environmental control for plant crops.
Approach 8.3: Improve or develop structures to reduce animal heat stress.
Approach 8.4: Match infrastructure and equipment to new and expected conditions.
Citation
Janowiak, M., D. Dostie, M. Wilson, M. Kucera, R. Howard Skinner, J. Hatfield, D. Hollinger, and C. Swanston. 2016. Adaptation Resources for Agriculture: Responding to Climate Variability and Change in the Midwest and Northeast. Technical Bulletin 1944. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Acknowledgments
This is a joint product of the USDA Midwest, Northeast and Northern Forests Climate Hubs in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Forest Service.
