Moving From Useful to Usable: The Role of Social Science in Improving the Delivery of Climate Information.

Climate data is becoming more abundant and accessible than ever before.  Still, the agricultural community continues to struggle with translating these data into actionable information for effective decision making.  Useful to Usable (U2U): Transforming Climate Variability and Change Information for Cereal Crop Producers is an integrated research and extension project focused on delivering to producers and farm advisors the resources and training they need to more effectively manage variable climate conditions.  Achieving this goal requires an interdisciplinary effort with ongoing stakeholder engagement at its core.  U2U social scientists use a variety of techniques to integrate stakeholder needs, concerns, and abilities into the design of tools and resource materials.  Corn producers in 22 HUC6 watersheds across the Corn Belt and agricultural advisors in four states have been surveyed about their climate information needs and concerns about climate change.  Network analysis in selected watersheds is being used to identify how information flows through the agricultural community and how personal connections influence the decision making process.  Also, in-person meetings will be used to actively engage stakeholders in the co-production process.