Opportunities and Challenges for Seasonal Forecasting Use in the Southeast USA.

Seasonal climate variability plays an important role in agricultural production risks. Seasonal forecasts can be used to reduce risks faced by an agricultural enterprise, but simply providing better climate forecasts to potential users is not enough. Climate information only has value when there is a clearly defined adaptive response and a benefit once the content of the information is considered in the decision making process. This presentation will highlight the challenges and opportunities of using of seasonal forecasts, specifically the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecast, in the Southeast U.S. We will discuss the Southeast Climate Consortium AgroClimate information system (http://agroclimate.org) and our recent efforts to include seasonal forecasts in the decision making process of different production systems in the region such as row crops, livestock, forest, fruits and vegetables. Our experience with an ongoing regional climate extension project (http://www.agroclimate.org/seclimate/) including an annual climate adaptation exchange fair where producers are exposed to alternative systems and practices that can increase resilience to climate variability and extremes will also be presented.