Fellowship program helps Wisconsin farmers and advisors pursue climate adaptation and mitigation strategies

As our climate continues to evolve and change, its impacts on agriculture will as well. It’s important for the nation’s agriculturalists to be prepared. Thanks to a fellowship program that recently expanded to Wisconsin, the state’s farmers and crop advisors have a new resource to learn about climate resilience in agriculture and apply that information to their operations.

The program, known as the Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Fellowship (CAMF), is co-led by the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, which receives support from the Wisconsin Rural Partnerships Institute. CAMF was started through an award from USDA-NIFA in 2019 and aims to help communities in the Northeastern and Midwestern U.S. accelerate the use of climate adaptation and mitigation practices. The fellowship launched in Wisconsin in 2024 as part of the Midwest Row Crops Program with an initial cohort of seventeen fellows, seven of whom are from the state.

Through 16 hours of online workshops, CAMF participants gained knowledge in climate science, communication, and adaptation and mitigation strategies. Additionally, the Wisconsin fellows partnered up as farmer-advisor pairs, completing on-farm risk assessments and developing farm-specific climate adaptation and mitigation plans, many of which were implemented during the 2024 growing season.

“Participants had various reasons for joining the program, but all share a deep fascination with weather, which led them to observe changing conditions over their lifetimes and how these shifts have impacted agriculture,” says Bridgette Mason, assistant Wisconsin state climatologist who helped lead the online workshops.

The Wisconsin fellows (three farmers and four advisors) are from Buffalo, Dane, Green, Jackson and Marathon counties, and they joined the program due to concerns such as warmer-than-average winters with little snow and inconsistent summer rains for corn and soybeans. Their backgrounds cover nutrient and pest management, soil conservation, and production of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, wheat, oats and more.

The goals of the participants include understanding geographically specific climate change information relevant to row crop production, creating a peer-to-peer learning space and serving as climate leaders in their own communities. CAMF fellows can continue to attend educational sessions through 2025 with supplementary topics including navigating funding programs, soil health, and mental and physical health on the farm.

“This group has been great,” says Mason. “Interacting with them, it’s clear that they plan to continue to perform risk assessments, improve adaptation plans and share what they’ve learned with their communities.”