Climate-Smart Agriculture
The climate crisis has already begun impacting America’s farmers and ranchers – threatening their future, the health of rural communities, and our food security. Fortunately, there are established agricultural programs that benefit farmers and help us fight the climate crisis at the same time. USDA’s voluntary and incentive-based conservation programs provide financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers to adopt hundreds of land stewardship practices, including climate-smart practices that can reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions and build soil carbon.
These programs are so popular that demand far outpaces funding, leaving thousands of interested and willing farmers unable to take advantage of these climate solutions. The Inflation Reduction Act provided nearly $20 billion in additional funding for these programs, helping to reduce the backlog. This new funding was provided with the express purpose of prioritizing agricultural practices that directly improve soil carbon, reduce nitrogen losses, or reduce, capture, avoid, or sequester carbon dioxide, methane, or nitrous emissions, associated with agricultural production.
Climate smart agriculture practices and investments are crucial to ensuring that farmers, ranchers, and rural communities are part of climate solutions and will make our food system more resilient, strengthen local economies, protect public health, and safeguard our environment.
