Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to US agriculture due to the sensitivity of productivity and costs to changing climate conditions, according to the US department of agriculture. However, the USDA said that adaptive actions should help manage climate change impacts while capitalizing on emerging opportunities.
In the short term, the USDA expects US agriculture to be fairly resilient to climate change due to the flexibility to engage in adaptive behaviors, such as increased irrigation or regional shifts in crop acreage. In the longer term, the USDA said it expects yields of major crops and farm returns to decline. These declines are associated with temperature increases that are expected to exceed 1 to 3 degrees Celsius by mid-century, along with the intensification of precipitation extremes.
The report specifies that rising temperatures and altered precipitation associated with climate change will reduce crop productivity. These reductions will outweigh the benefits of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). While effects will vary among annual and perennial crops, the USDA notes that all crop production systems will be affected to some degree. In the report, the USDA also stresses that the pattern and potential magnitude of precipitation changes associated with climate change are not well understood, and add considerable uncertainty to assessment efforts.
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