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New USDA climate change report
A new U.S. Ag Department report on climate change says there are likely climate change risks coming that farmers will have to manage.
Bill Hohenstein directs the USDA Climate Change office. He says,“Agriculture, within the U.S., is highly adaptive. Our farmers have a variety of technologies and practices out there that can help them manage risk and those technologies and practices can also help them manage for climate change.”
Hohenstein says in the early part of this century, through about 2040, they expect a mixed bag of effects on specific commodities, animal agriculture and various regions. The second half of the century sees potentially more negative effects.
“Particularly for regions of the country that are already climate stressed, the areas in the Southwest and Southeast, where high temperatures are likely to dominate the effects. And,” he adds, “The other critical issue that we’ll need to be concerned about is the effects on water and water availability.”
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the USDA has plans it will unfold in the coming months that involve more climate research, best use of technologies, best practices and better use of existing land resources, especially water.
Among their proposed solutions: Multi-cropping, double cropping, cover crops, integrated operations and agro-forestry.
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