Maryland Climate-Smart Agriculture: Roadmap to Resilience

The Maryland Climate-Smart Agriculture: Roadmap to Resilience is the result of three years of collaborative engagement led by the Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology, in partnership with the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and staff from the Maryland Departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and the Environment, as well as farmers and representatives from the agricultural, academic, nonprofit, and policy communities. As a team, we have developed this action plan to address the needs of Maryland's farmers, enabling them to remain economically viable and environmentally sustainable in the face of climate change. This Roadmap is based on extensive stakeholder outreach to the farming community and is grounded in research with a thorough investigation into the current and projected impacts of climate change on Maryland's farmers. This has resulted in 13 recommendations that will help Maryland continue to develop a response strategy to address the upcoming challenges. The report acknowledges the significant advancements Maryland has made in the agricultural and environmental sectors, and builds upon Maryland's current successes to facilitate a response specifically to challenges affecting the State's top economic sector, agriculture.