The agricultural sector is a major part of the U.S. economy and has been and will continue to be affected by climate change, according to the Third National Climate Assessment. The assessment states that climate change will likely cause an increase in temperature, rainfall intensity, and extreme events in some areas, and extreme climate conditions, such as sustained droughts and heat waves. USDA plays an important role in addressing these potential impacts by using its resources to develop and implement both mitigation and adaptation measures. The U.S. agricultural sector accounted for $395 billion in sales in 2012, up 33 percent from 2007. According to USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture, of this $395 billion, about half is from sales of crops, and half is from livestock sales. Between 2007 and 2012, crop sales increased nearly 48 percent, while livestock sales increased about 19 percent. Thirteen states—California, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Ohio—each had more than $10 billion in agricultural sales and together accounted for about 62 percent of all agriculture sales in 2012. California led the United States in agricultural sales in 2012, with about $43 billion, or 11 percent, of the total U.S. agricultural sales. In recent years, there has been a trend toward larger-scale farming operations. For example, according to a 2013 USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) report, between 1982 and 2007, for farms, the midpoint acreage for U.S. cropland nearly doubled, from about 590 acres to about 1,100 acres. Three important crops in terms of acreage planted and sales in the United States are corn, soybeans, and wheat. In 2012, corn was harvested on more than 94 million acres, and total sales for corn were about $67 billion. Soybeans were harvested on more than 76 million acres, with sales of about $39 billion, while there were about 49 million acres of all wheat varieties, with sales of about $16 billion. Livestock sales represented nearly half of agricultural sales in 2012, with poultry, cattle, milk, and pigs the most sold commodities in this category. A breakdown of the agricultural sector’s 2012 sales is shown in figure 1. The United States is also a global supplier of food. In 2012, the United States exported nearly $136 billion in agricultural products, or around 10 percent of total U.S. exports. The United States exports about 20 percent of the corn grown domestically, is the leading exporter of soybeans, and also is a leading exporter of wheat. In addition, the United States is the largest producer of beef and poultry in the world. According to the Third National Climate Assessment, climate change is expected to increase disruptions to agriculture production in the future. Increases in temperature, rainfall intensity, and extreme events in some areas, and extreme climate conditions, such as sustained droughts and heat waves, will likely have negative impacts on crop and livestock yields. By the end of the century, the Third National Climate Assessment states that average U.S. temperatures will increase between 3°F and 10°F, and precipitation events will be more extreme, meaning that more rain will fall during these events. In addition, changing climate conditions also will likely affect the geographic distribution and severity of invasive pests, diseases, and weeds. Table 1 shows the projected impacts of climate change and how they could affect agricultural production in the United States. Both climate mitigation and adaptation options exist in the agricultural sector. According to the Third National Climate Assessment, both of these efforts are required to minimize the damage inflicted by climate change in the United States and to adapt to the changes that already have occurred or that will occur. The agricultural sector emits about 6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, but U.S. lands (mostly forestlands) sequester enough carbon to offset 12 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. Sources of these emissions include fuel consumption, fertilizer that can emit nitrous oxide, and methane emissions from livestock. Farmers can take certain mitigation actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon. For example, farmers can use energy-efficient buildings, vehicles, or farm equipment that runs on renewable energy, rather than fossil fuels. In addition, farmers can implement mitigation measures, such as no-till farming and precision agriculture. According to a 2011 ERS report, adoption of precision agriculture can improve the efficiency of input use and reduce environmental harm from the overapplication of inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, which can reduce nitrous oxide emissions. Through the digestive process, livestock emit a considerable amount of methane, a greenhouse gas; reducing these emissions is another mitigation strategy. According to USDA officials, work is being done to alter the diet of cattle and to improve manure management practices in an effort to reduce methane emissions. Farmers also can improve the resiliency of their operations, as shown in table 2. For example, farmers can change the type of crop they plant to fit the changing climate or change the timing of their planting in response to a longer or shorter growing season. They can also shift to drought-, pest-, or weed-resistant crop varieties to reduce climate change impacts. There are also actions that address both mitigation and adaptation. For example, farmers can choose no-till farming, which allows carbon to remain in the soil and reduces fuel consumption (mitigation) while also improving the capacity of soil to retain moisture to reduce stress on crops during drought (adaptation). Several USDA agencies and offices are involved in climate change work. USDA’s Climate Change Program Office, which coordinates all of the department’s responses to climate change, leads a Global Change Task Force. The task force includes representatives from 20 USDA agencies and offices and works to coordinate climate activities by holding monthly meetings to discuss climate-related opportunities and efforts across the department. Table 3 provides information about the eight USDA agencies and offices that are most heavily involved in the agency’s climate change work. In June 2011, the Secretary of Agriculture issued Departmental Regulation 1070-001 that required USDA agencies to take climate change into account when making long-term planning decisions and to The resulting USDA prepare climate adaptation plans by June 2012.adaptation plan contained individual adaptation plans for 12 of USDA’s agencies, lays out the risks and vulnerabilities facing agency missions as a result of climate change, and details the strategies for overcoming these vulnerabilities. As required by GPRA as amended by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, executive agencies are to complete strategic plans in which they define their missions, establish results-oriented goals, and identify the strategies that will be needed to achieve those goals. According to USDA officials, beginning with its 2010-2015 Strategic Plan, USDA included climate change as a part of one of its four strategic goals. Specifically, the Strategic Plan states that USDA will ensure that farms are “conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change.” An objective of this strategic goal is to “lead efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.” In April 2014, USDA released its 2014-2018 Strategic Plan that includes the same four strategic goals established in the 2010-2015 strategic plan plus one additional strategic goal. USDA partners with the cooperative extension system to, among other things, help deliver information to farmers on farm management practices. The cooperative extension system is a partnership between land-grant universities and USDA. Established by the Morrill Act of 1862, the land grant university system is comprised of more than 100 colleges and universities around the country. These institutions receive federal support and are required to provide relevant information to the public through the extension system. Faculty members at land-grant universities may have dual appointments, meaning that in addition to teaching, they spend a certain portion of their time on research and on extension work. Established by the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, the cooperative extension system is a nationwide system used to disseminate information and research developed at land-grant universities. The system is a network of state and local offices that provide information to the public on a variety of topics, including agriculture. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) distributes federal funding for the extension service. The extension service also receives state and county funding. According to a June 2013 joint USDA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report on the role of extension in climate adaptation, climate-related research and extension efforts have existed for decades.provide decision makers with information and tools, disseminated through meetings, written publications, and internet websites, to increase climate literacy. USDA’s climate change priorities include providing better information on future climate conditions to help farmers in their decision making, conducting research, and delivering decision support tools and technical assistance to farmers. USDA’s adaptation efforts focus on research and technical assistance, while its mitigation efforts also focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon. USDA’s climate adaptation and mitigation priorities generally align with national climate priorities. USDA’s climate change priorities include providing better information to farmers on current and potential impacts of climate change, which is information that farmers need to make decisions. According to a USDA official, there is a need to develop better forecasts for upcoming growing seasons. These forecasts are generally 90-day forecasts, but farmers also need accurate forecasts for 6 to 8 months out, because they order their seeds for spring planting in the fall. Another USDA official we spoke with told us that there is a need to provide farmers with longer-term projections for as much as 20 to 60 years into the future that farmers can use to help make large capital investment decisions, such as whether to install an irrigation system or install a cooling system in a barn.