Join us 3 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 15, at Lawyer's Mall when we release the Roadmap!
Read the Roadmap to Resilience Here
New Action Plan Recommends Steps to Strengthen Maryland Agriculture’s Resilience to Climate Change
A new action plan from the University of Maryland’s Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology offers a path forward for how Maryland’s farmers, agricultural leaders, and policymakers can strengthen the state’s agricultural resilience in the face of climate change.
The plan, Maryland Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Roadmap to Resilience, presents 13 key recommendations for supporting the long-term sustainability of Maryland agriculture. It was developed by the Hughes Center, a nonprofit affiliated with the University of Maryland (UMD), and the UMD College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR), in partnership with a cross-sector team and with funding from the State of Maryland.
The purpose of this Roadmap is to provide Maryland farmers, the agricultural community, and policymakers with scientific and real-world recommendations to help them respond effectively to climate change.
At the heart of the Roadmap is a call for Maryland to adopt a climate-smart agriculture approach, defined as a set of agricultural practices and technologies that aim to increase agricultural resiliency. A climate-smart agricultural approach continually evaluates best management practices with the best available science to respond to challenges.
The report identifies three key components of this approach:
- Sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes;
- Increase the agricultural sector’s resilience in the face of climate-related risks; and
- Reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration in agricultural lands.
This Roadmap draws on a scientific assessment conducted by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from UMD, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), who assessed the current and future impacts of climate change on agriculture in Maryland. It also integrates extensive stakeholder and farmer input, ensuring that on-the-ground experiences inform the recommendations.
The 13 recommendations highlighted in the main report are distilled from these scientific findings and engagement efforts. The full scientific study, included as Appendix 1, provides dozens of detailed recommendations addressing different sectors of Maryland’s agriculture industry. The report is available at go.umd.edu/ClimateSmart.
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