The Department of Agriculture and Its Role in Climate Research Print E-mail

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The Department of Agriculture's (USDA) global change research program aims to empower land managers, policy makers, and Federal agencies with science-based knowledge to manage the risks, challenges, and opportunities posed by climate change; reduce GHG emissions; and enhance carbon sequestration. Meeting USDA's goals for expanded economic opportunity, helping rural America thrive, promoting the sustainability of agricultural production, enhancing food security, and conserving natural resources requires understanding climate change's influences and the options for managing them. 

USDA's global change research program includes contributions from the:

  • Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
  • The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
  • The Forest Service
  • Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
  • National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
  • Economic Research Service.

USDA draws upon this diversity to identify climate change challenges and priorities in continuing to meet the needs of its stakeholders, decision-makers, and collaborators. This work is important to ensuring sustained food security for the nation and the world; maintaining and enhancing forest and natural resource health; and identifying strategic risks to agricultural production from changing temperature and precipitation as well as pests, disease, and invasive species.

The USDA supports USGCRP on multiple fronts. The Department conducts in-house research and sponsors extramural investigations focused on understanding climate change effects on natural and managed ecosystems, developing the knowledge and tools to enable adaptation under a changing climate, enhancing mitigation of atmospheric GHGs, and providing science-based information for decision support. USDA conducts assessments and projections of climate change impacts on agricultural and natural systems, and develops GHG inventories. USDA develops cultivars, cropping systems, and management practices to improve drought tolerance and build resilience to climate variability. Conservation systems promoted by the USDA integrate USGCRP research findings into farm and natural resource management, and help build resiliency to climate change on both private and public lands. Development and deployment of decision support tools is a cornerstone of the Department's climate change efforts. USDA maintains critical long-term data collection and observation networks, including the Snowpack Telemetry (SNOTEL) network, the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN), the National Resources Inventory (NRI), and the Forest Inventory and Assessment (FIA). Analysis and modeling work includes biophysical subjects as well as economic analysis of climate change effects and adaptation options. Finally, USDA engages in communication, outreach, and education through multiple forums, including its vast network of agricultural extension services.

Visit the Department of Agriculture's Climate Change website.