The California Department of Food and Agriculture, in partnership with the Climate Science Alliance, has released the 2020 Climate Change Consortium for Specialty Crops Report for the Southern California Region, which covers three distinct growing regions: San Diego County, South San Joaquin Valley, and Imperial Valley/Inland Desert.
The report is a reflection of feedback and recommendations from producers and agricultural representatives to better understand climate impacts and challenges, and how best to support farms in building their climate resilience. Some of the issues addressed include impacts of drought, weather and precipitation variability; increasing temperatures; and wildfire. Recommendations cover topic areas in planning, incentive funding, research needs, technology advancement, and education and outreach.
CDFA funded this project through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program as a follow up to the statewide Climate Change Consortium effort completed 2013. Consortium members advised more regional meetings to understand local agricultural challenges resulting from climate change. CDFA and its Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation continue to be proactive in understanding and addressing the impacts of climate change on agriculture in California, which is the No. 1 food producing state in the country. The agency remains committed to working on regional agricultural impacts of – and adaption to – climate change.
July 7, 2020 CDFA