Cornell's Climate Smart Farming Program: Integrating Research, Tools, and Extension to Support Agricultural Adaptation for Sustainability and Resilience in the Northeast.

Agriculture in the Northeastern United States is facing increasing climate change impacts due to increasing temperature, extreme rainfall, short-term drought, changes in seasons, and pressures from disease, pests, and weeds. Farmers are on the front lines of climate change. A warmer climate will also provide opportunities for agriculture in the Northeast, but farmers will need to become more resilient to stay ahead of the curve with increasingly rapid climate change. We will present a case example of how Cornell University is working to build collaborations across disciplines within the university, our Cooperative Extension system, with stakeholders, and federal agencies to address the complex challenge of helping farmers in the Northeast increase their resiliency to extreme weather and climate variability, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Established in 2015, the Cornell Climate Smart Farming Program is an integrated research, extension, and engagement program. This presentation will provide an overview of the work to: 1) facilitate and coordinate innovative, interdisciplinary research across the social, natural, and agricultural sciences on climate change; 2) translate this research into practical applications and training through a growing suite of management resources and online decision support tools for farmers, through the http://climatesmartfarming.org website; 3) assess stakeholder views through focus groups and surveys, and engage stakeholders though a farmer advisory committee for ongoing input to the tools and resources; and 4) serve as a clearinghouse for information on climate change impacts and response, through the first Climate Smart Farming Extension team in the nation, and through an online farmer forum for information exchange. By engaging stakeholders and building partnerships, the CSF program is working to deliver trusted, research-based climate information and training for farmers, Extension specialists, resource managers, and policy makers to encourage agricultural resiliency in a changing climate.