From Climate Variability to Climate Change: Extension Challenges and Opportunities in the Southeast USA.

Managing climate-related risks is something very familiar to agricultural producers, and we believe that strategies for adapting to climate change and variability become much more accessible when education and outreach happens in the familiar context of climate-related risk management.  There are two parts to climate extension: education and the successful application of gained knowledge for reducing risk.  This project is improving both aspects, advancing the science and application of climate information for agricultural risk management in the Southeast U.S.  The goal of this project is to improve and broaden the Climate Extension efforts in agriculture for the Southeast in order to contribute to the existence of a vibrant and sustainable agricultural industry in the region that is capable of adapting to and mitigating risks associated with climate variability and change.  By using participatory approaches and taking advantage of our established partnerships within the agricultural industry, we aim to find and develop climate adaptation and mitigation strategies with increased chance of adoption by producers in the southeastern USA.  The work of this project can be organized into five major components.  (1) Education & Outreach: delivering information in a variety of formats to improve climate literacy among agricultural decision makers.  (2) Agricultural Systems Research: presenting the observations and projections of climate change and climate variability in ways that are closely linked to agricultural management problems and opportunities.  (3) AgroClimate Tools: advancing the quality and availability of Web-based tools to connect management decisions to climate information.  (4) Policies and Insurance: connecting the economic and policy frameworks to adaptation and mitigation strategies.  (5) Evaluation & Social Science: assessing information needs of decision-makers and measuring project outcomes and producer engagement.  Major deliverables include a Southeast Climate Handbook that describes climate basics, variability, change, and impacts on agriculture.  Another significant output will be Web-based water, carbon, and nitrogen footprint tools that will be available for comparing the resource-use efficiency of different risk-management strategies in agricultural systems.  A variety of reports, fact sheets, and workshops will also be delivered under this project to contribute to improved climate extension for agriculture in the Southeast U.S.