Climate Resilience Strategy for California Agriculture

The Climate Resilience Strategy is Out for Public Review!

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has just released the draft Climate Resilience Strategy for California Agriculture (RSA) for public comment. As our farmers and ranchers are facing an increasingly difficult landscape, including climate change effects, economic uncertainties, and more, the state is dedicated to supporting our agricultural industry and food system. The RSA is a key step in ensuring that the state is fostering resilience in the agricultural sector.

The RSA lays out the current challenges facing our agricultural system and what the state is already doing—including investing in tools and innovations, developing and administrating programs, offering technical assistance—and highlights where there are opportunities for the state to do more.

The RSA was developed with input from farmers and ranchers, nonprofits, technical experts, state agencies, and more. Now, CDFA is asking for public comment to ensure that the topic areas, goals, strategies and actions reflect stakeholder input and needs.

Public comment ends on November 7, 2025. Make sure you provide your feedback before then.

Here is how you can read and provide feedback:

• Visit the Community Document website to read the Climate Resilience Strategy and leave comments. Free account sign-up required.
• Download a copy of the strategy to read offline and then email climate@cdfa.ca.gov to share your comments.
• Sign up to attend a workshop to learn more about the RSA and share your feedback.

Workshop Details

CDFA is offering 2 workshops where you can learn more about the Climate Resilience Strategy and share your thoughts. Pre-registration is required.

Background

California agriculture not only is a major part of California’s economy but is critical to both the national and global food supply. California’s agricultural sector has a farm gate value of $59 billion and produces three-quarters of the nation’s fruits and tree nuts and a fifth of the nation’s milk. Agriculture also constitutes more than forty percent of California’s land use. California Ag Vision For the Next Decade, which guides areas of focus for CDFA and serves as a catalyst for action, identified the need to “Foster climate-smart, resilient, and regenerative food systems” as a strategic priority. This project seeks to create a roadmap for doing so.

Project Description

California agriculture, like many sectors, is vulnerable to the effects of climate change and faces a complex set of challenges. The Climate Resilience Strategy for California Agriculture will bring together the state’s dispersed agricultural climate actions into a single document, providing both the status of current action and a direction for future action. The document will catalog climate-related agricultural challenges, policies, and actions across state government, and capture current gaps and future opportunities for CDFA and California agriculture. The Climate Strategy is intended to guide internal activities as well as be a resource for partner agencies, the legislature, agricultural stakeholders, producers, and the public.

Strategy Outline

The strategy will cover a range of topics to build resilience in agriculture, including: