Progress 04/01/23 to 03/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Although stakeholder engagement will not occur until Y2, the IMPACT2 team has spent Y1 developing activities and tools to use in Y2 stakeholder engagement activities. Activities being developed in OBJ1 (visioning sessions) will reach our target audience through agency staff, agricultural advisors, and a wide range of producers and landowners (non-operating landowners, owner-operators, tenants, small farms, large farms, BIPOC, beginning, urban, diversified, conventional, etc.). Activities being developed in OBJ2 (expert assessment of climate-smart practices and systems) engage with agency staff, extension educators, agricultural advisors, and academic researchers. Tools being developed in OBJ2 will be targeted towards farmers and agricultural advisers. Changes/Problems:We added Dr. Sarah Church, Assistant Professor at Montana State University, to the IMPACT^2 advisory committee. Dr. Church's focus on stakeholder engagement and processes of behavior change across urban and working landscapes brings valuable expertise to IMPACT^2's advisory committee. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training of two graduate students and one undergraduate student How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Midwest Climate Summit, Purdue Small Farms Conference What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?To address OBJ1 in year 2, the IMPACT2 team will conduct 2 visioning sessions in IL, IN, and IA (6 total). Visioning session participants will play a discussion-based serious game that explores the viability of climate smart practices and diversified agricultural system based on future climate scenarios. The activity will also gather info to inform portal development (OBJ2) related to preferences/attitudes towards specific practices and systems as well as the development and implementation of Extension training material related to climate-smart agriculture (OBJ3). To address OBJ2 in year 2 the IMPACT2 team will use information gathered in OBJ1 to inform the development of a portal that serves as a clearing house of information for climate-smart agricultural practices and resources. In addition to incorporating information gleaned from visioning sessions conducted in OBJ1, OBJ2 will also convene a number of expert panels to further explore the state of science around climate smart practices and systems as well as understand where information gaps still remain. To address OBJ3 in year 2 the IMPACT2 team will continue engaging with and informing activities conducted in OBJ1 and OBJ2 through the lens of curriculum development and implantation.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In our first year, the IMPACT2 team has made considerable progress establishing a foundation for project success. Progress includes administrative accomplishments, team building, as well as collaboration with our advisory committee and other projects. IMPACT2 has hired a project manager, recruited 2 graduate students, 2 staff, and established project infrastructure enabling multi-institution and interdisciplinary data sharing, communication, and research. We convened a kick-off meeting in May '23 and established sub-teams to work on specific project objectives. Both full-team and sub-teams meet monthly (virtual) to discuss progress, updates, and needs. Monthly all-team and sub-team meetings are essential, as our objectives are interrelated and depend on inputs and outputs from each objective. In preparation for stakeholder engagement, we have created an informative one-pager for a non-technical audience and developed IMPACT2 branding that includes a logo and presentation templates. We also developed a website to introduce the project, house IMPACT2 products and resources, as well as connect stakeholders to additional resources during project life and beyond. In addition to establishing internal structure and processes, we have engaged with our Advisory Committee and made essential connections with several other projects that have similar focus and objectives. These key connections are important to ensuring IMPACT2 outputs are impactful and complimentary to similar work being done in the region. Objective 1: Convene scenario-based visioning sessions with diverse stakeholders to develop a strategy for defining climate-optimal systems and to understand information needs related to transformative agricultural systems. Coproduction is a cornerstone of this project and OBJ1 addresses coproduction activities in this project. Information gathered from visioning session conducted in OBJ1 will inform portal development (OBJ2) as well as activities and curricula development (OBJ3). To address OBJ1 the IMPACT2 team is developing online and in-person scenario-based visioning activities to be conducted with a wide range of farmers and other agricultural stakeholders. The goal of these activities is to coproduce viable alternative farming futures based on data-informed climate scenarios developed by the IMPACT2 team. These discussion-based activities will engage participants to better understand uncertainly in future decision-making and potential impacts of climate scenarios on agriculture at the farm and landscape scale. To inform activity development, the OBJ1 team has conducted a literature review on scenario planning and serious games in agriculture as well as a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed research related to farmer perspectives on climate change in the Midwest. OBJ1 team is currently piloting two scenario-based visioning activities and plan to conduct activities in Y2. To inform participant recruitment, the IMPACT2 team has compiled a list of organizations working with underserved audiences (minority, women, young, and new farmers) and explored existing farmer demographics from the 2022 ag census. Objective 2: Develop a Climate-Smart Agriculture resource portal that integrates informational resources, curriculum guidance, and exploration tools. To address OBJ2 the IMPACT2 team is planning an engagement activity to solicit information from experts related to climate-smart practices and diversified systems. Specifically, we will ask experts how well specific practices fulfill each of the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture (enhancing resilience, increasing productivity, reducing emissions), and the level of uncertainty (i.e., how well do we know this practice fulfills this pillar). We also want experts to reflect on benefits, pitfalls, ecosystem services, system resilience, and regional applicability of specific practices and agricultural systems. We will also ask the experts to vet our process and identify any important elements missing or misrepresented. This activity informs portal development by identifying critical information resources and highlighting information gaps related to climate-smart ag practices. Objective 3: Build out and implement Extension training materials for Climate-Smart Agriculture The Extension training and curriculum materials developed in OBJ3 are informed by activities conducted in OBJ1 and OBJ2. IMPACT^2 team members focused on OBJ3 tasks are involved in the development of OBJ1 and OBJ2 tasks, ensuring adequate planning and considerations are made to enable the successful implementation of Extension materials related to climate-smart agriculture.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Agclimate4u.org
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
"Building Climate-Informed Outreach and Education: Collaborative Approaches in Midwest Agriculture" Midwest Climate Summit, Indianapolis, Indiana. April 2024
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