While the environment continues changing and the risk to agriculture continue to rise.

The key message from an article published recently by a group that includes UC Merced and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers. This paper delved into the nature of these challenges are, and what farmers are doing to tackle them, and what the next steps should be.

“Climate smart agriculture: Analyzing requirements and expectations of California’s farmers” was written by Samuel Ikendi, academic coordinator along with Tapan Pathak who is UC Cooperative Extension climate adaption specialist in agriculture, as co-author. Both are located in UC Merced. Pathak is also the project director at the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, which is a project funded by the National Institute of “Multifaceted pathways to climate-friendly agriculture by Participator Programming Development and Delivery” that was the source of this study. The study was published in the journal open access Frontiers on Sustainable Food Systems.

The assessment of needs was created to explore farmers’ views and experience with impacts of climate change; methods of risk management they use currently, and the tools and resources can aid them in making important decision-making.

The farmers who were surveyed about two-thirds of them believe that there is a climate change taking place and needs to be addressed. A majority of them said they were eager to know about the effects of climate change to the farming business. Many respondents stated that they are experiencing more climate-related impacts on their farms now compared to 10 years ago.

Farmers were particularly concerned about concerns regarding water supply, with farmers living in areas like the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Inland Empire areas particularly worried about the decrease in water supply to the ground. A rise in the severity of droughts was a major concern for farmers living in regions like the Inland Empire, Central Coast and Southern regions. Farmers from regions such as the North Coast and Southern regions are concerned about damage to crops from wildfires.

In close proximity were the issues related to temperature related to temperature, such as damage to crops caused by extreme temperatures.

People who grow vegetables are more worried about the availability of water for irrigation however, fruit farmers were concerned about water stress and crop growth as well as increased damage to crops because of extreme temperatures.

A majority of respondents reported that they have been taking climate-related measures, such as controlling water resources, ensuring soil health, and making the use the renewable resources for energy. They’re looking for insurance or aid from government agencies to help pay for these adjustments and improve the resilience of their agriculture, research team wrote.

They expressed an interest in finding out more about the ways they could adopt to combat changes in the climate. They also cited a number of obstacles for this endeavor, which include laws and regulations from the government, the high costs, labor access/costs in accessing water as well as access to money to fund the work.

“Climate changes are significantly altering the diverse landscape of California’s agriculture and causing challenges like an increase in water stress, extreme heat stress and changing the seasons of growing,” Pathak said. “Climate-smart farming practices could alleviate certain of these stressors.”

He added that studies and UC Cooperative Extension efforts only are effective if they contribute to improved climate-informed decision-making on the level of local government.

“Assessing the level of their knowledge of their needs, perceptions and expectations will assist in determining the extensions and research activities that will be most beneficial to the farmers who live there,” Pathak said. “Results of this research could be a valuable source of policy insight in the area of financial incentives and technical aid.”

Source: ucanr.edu