National Survey of USDA Field Staff on Climate and Weather

Wiener, Sarah; Roesch‐McNally, Gabrielle; Schattman, Rachel E.

doi:10.32747/2018.6938607.ch

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The farmers' terms, listed in Table 4, suggest terminology to consider using in future inquiry in this region. These findings respond to calls for research to employ qualitative approaches (Soubry et al, 2020) to specify US farmers' firsthand observations about climate effects in their own words (Morton et al, 2015;Asplund, 2016;Doll et al, 2017;Wiener et al, 2020). Smaller qualitative inquiries such as this one can then inform larger confirmatory approaches to linking farmers' views of climate impacts to their perspectives on mitigation and adaptation measures (Arbuckle et al, 2013a;Liu et al, 2014).…”

Section: Salience Of Climate Change In Farmers' Qualitative Responsesmentioning

confidence: 70%

Product Diversification, Adaptive Management, and Climate Change: Farming and Family in the U.S. Corn Belt

et al. 2021

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A variety of factors shape farmers' views as they face the rising effects of climate change and consider a range of adaptation strategies to build the resilience of their farming systems. We examine a set of related questions to explore farmers' perspectives on risks and potential shifts to their operations: (1) Relative to other environmental factors, how salient of a challenge is climate change and climate-related impacts to farmers? (2) Do farmers intend to adapt to climate impacts generally?, and (3) What factors shape their use of a specific and underexplored adaptive response—farm product diversification? The data come from a survey of 179 operators within a 30-county region of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The region spans various rural-urban gradients. Respondents generally represent smaller operations [median of 80 acres (32 hectares)]. Because our selection methods aimed to over-sample from food-producing farms, 60% of respondents produced some type of food or value-added product, and 40% produced only commodity feedstocks and biofuels. Although the group as a whole indicated only “somewhat” of a concern about changing weather patterns, and half did not anticipate adapting their farming practices to climate change, farmers' responses to a write-in question denoted regional climate effects as challenges to their farms. Analysis of subgroups among the respondents, according to their views of climate change, adaptation, and further diversifying their agricultural products, distinguished farmers' family considerations, and gender. Methods to elicit subgroups included correlation, regression, cluster analysis, and an examination of the many respondents (29%) who indicated uncertainty about adapting practices. Women, who participated in 29% of responses, indicated more concern with changing weather patterns and more openness to adapting farming practices compared to men. Farmers with the most family relationships to consider, and those with the greatest aspirations to employ descendants, were the most receptive to adapting their farming practices. This was the case even when respondents' concern over climate change was low. Results point to the importance of family relationships as a factor in farmers' openness to implementing adaptive and potentially mitigative actions.

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Section: Salience Of Climate Change In Farmers' Qualitative Responsesmentioning

confidence: 70%

Product Diversification, Adaptive Management, and Climate Change: Farming and Family in the U.S. Corn Belt

et al. 2021

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“…Extension professionals are well positioned to work with farmers and foresters on mitigating the risks associated with climate change (Morris et al, 2014). However, several studies of Extension providers and other agricultural advisers show that many doubt their own ability to do so, but are receptive to additional training and information on the topic (Becerra et al, 2016;Tobin, Radhakrishna, Chatrchyan, & Allred, 2017;Wiener et al, 2018). This demonstrates a need for not only adult-centered education on climate change adaptation for land manager audiences, but also for Extension and agricultural advisers.…”

Section: Climate Adaptation and The Need For Educational Programingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agricultural and forestry advisers, including professionals working within the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service (referred to as Extension) and other technical service providers, play an important role in supporting farmers and foresters to adapt to climate change (Morris et al, 2014;Prokopy et al, 2015;Schattman et al, 2018;Wiener et al, 2018). However, not all agricultural and forestry advisers are comfortable talking about climate change with land managers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change curricula for adult audiences in agriculture and forestry: A review

Schattman

Kaplan

Aitken

et al. 2019

Journal of Adult and Continuing Education

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Agricultural and forestry advisers and other technical service providers play an important role in supporting farmers and foresters to adapt to climate change. However, not all agricultural and forestry advisers are comfortable talking about climate change with land managers. While there is a demonstrated interest related to climate-related professional development, few examples of curricula developed with the express purpose of serving this audience and a systematic review of these curricula has not been conducted. To address this gap, we reviewed 12 curricula which were developed and implemented between 2001 and 2017. The goal of this review is to apply the lessons learned from a range of climate change-focused curricula to new, regionally or sector-specific educational programs targeting both agricultural advisers and innovative farmers. Our findings suggest that developers of future educational programs consider the following: (a) the specific needs of their audience, including topical interests and learning needs; (b) the use of interdisciplinary teams for curricula development; (c) trade-offs associated with inclusivity and depth of course content; and (d) the advantages of project-based education approaches suited for adult learning audiences. By applying these concepts to future curricula, these curricula are likely to have the greatest level of impact.

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Ready, willing, and able? USDA field staff as climate advisors

Wiener¹,

Roesch‐McNally²,

Schattman³

et al. 2019

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

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Natural resource advisors operate at a natural resource-climate nexus that presents opportunity for utilization of regionally relevant climate science and tools to support climate smart decision making among land managers. This opportunity, however, may be underutilized. In thousands of county offices across the country, USDA field staff with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Farm Service Agency (FSA) interface with farmers on a daily basis to provide conservation technical assistance, farm loans, and disaster recovery assistance. In this study, we conducted a survey of NRCS field staff (n = 1,893) and a similar survey of FSA field staff (n = 4,621) to determine the following: (1) how concerned USDA field staff are with both general and specific climate and weather threats and their effect on agriculture and forestry, (2) what available climate and weather resources staff are currently using, (3) how these factors relate to USDA field staff 's confidence and interest in playing the role of climate advisor, and (4) the differences that exist between NRCS and FSA field staff related to these research questions. We found that many USDA field staff are concerned about climate change in general and about several specific impacts, but fewer are confident in their ability to support land managers in addressing these impacts. Additionally, increased concern about climate threats was related to higher levels of climate and weather resource use and an increased desire to play the role of climate advisor, but was also related to lower levels of self-reported ability to play that role. These findings can be used to inform appropriate application of professional development opportunities and creation of tools and resources to improve professional uses of weather and climate information.

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National Survey of USDA Field Staff on Climate and Weather

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

Product Diversification, Adaptive Management, and Climate Change: Farming and Family in the U.S. Corn Belt

Product Diversification, Adaptive Management, and Climate Change: Farming and Family in the U.S. Corn Belt

Climate change curricula for adult audiences in agriculture and forestry: A review

Ready, willing, and able? USDA field staff as climate advisors

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