Thriving Future Cropscapes

Thriving Future Cropscapes is a four-year NSF-funded project bringing together stakeholders from many sectors, regions, and disciplines to anticipate and prepare for the major changes likely to shape agricultural cropping systems in the southern and central US over the next 30-40 years. 

Our team will work with community partners to explore: 

What is

UNDERSTAND CURRENT REALITIES

Using historical information and modeling, combined with insight from farmers and industry leaders, we will assemble the best of what we currently know about major cropping systems in each state and the current realities that drive or limit future change.

What could be

ANTICIPATE FUTURE CHANGE

We will work with community partners to identify new technologies, crops, management practices, and policies with the potential to transform regional cropping systems. We’ll also explore the on-farm realities shaping access to these new opportunities. 

What should be

leverage opportunities

With community partners, we will co-create regionally tailored strategies that leverage emergent opportunities and foster thriving agricultural futures in each state.

where?

Our project will focus primarily on Georgia, Nebraska, and Ohio – the three important and diverse farming states that are likely to experience different social, economic, and climatic challenges and opportunities over the coming century. 

georgia

Nebraska

ohio

Why?

US cropping systems face several daunting challenges–from market volatility, to new pest pressures, to changing climate. Working with community partners, we will identify opportunities for transformative change in response to these challenges. Specifically, we will: 

  • Improve our capabilities to predict the response of agricultural systems to climate change by combining data on biophysical and socioeconomic trends. 
  • Identify emergent opportunities that could increase the profitability and resilience of each state’s agricultural sector. 
  • Generate concrete and regionally relevant strategies to support agricultural adaptation. 
  • Support thriving agricultural futures by anticipating and preparing for major shifts in regional cropping systems. 

Thriving Future Cropscapes

Thriving Future Cropscapes is a four-year NSF-funded project bringing together stakeholders from many sectors, regions, and disciplines to anticipate and prepare for the major changes likely to shape agricultural cropping systems in the southern and central US over the next 30-40 years. 

Our team will work with community partners to explore: 

What is

UNDERSTAND CURRENT REALITIES

Using historical information and modeling, combined with insight from farmers and industry leaders, we will assemble the best of what we currently know about major cropping systems in each state and the current realities that drive or limit future change.

What could be

ANTICIPATE FUTURE CHANGE

We will work with community partners to identify new technologies, crops, management practices, and policies with the potential to transform regional cropping systems. We’ll also explore the on-farm realities shaping access to these new opportunities. 

What should be

leverage opportunities

With community partners, we will co-create regionally tailored strategies that leverage emergent opportunities and foster thriving agricultural futures in each state.

where?

Our project will focus primarily on Georgia, Nebraska, and Ohio – the three important and diverse farming states that are likely to experience different social, economic, and climatic challenges and opportunities over the coming century. 

georgia

Nebraska

ohio

Why?

US cropping systems face several daunting challenges–from market volatility, to new pest pressures, to changing climate. Working with community partners, we will identify opportunities for transformative change in response to these challenges. Specifically, we will: 

  • Improve our capabilities to predict the response of agricultural systems to climate change by combining data on biophysical and socioeconomic trends. 
  • Identify emergent opportunities that could increase the profitability and resilience of each state’s agricultural sector. 
  • Generate concrete and regionally relevant strategies to support agricultural adaptation. 
  • Support thriving agricultural futures by anticipating and preparing for major shifts in regional cropping systems.