Due to frequent extreme events such as heat waves, heavy rains, and droughts around the world, prompt responses to climate crises are becoming more urgent. In particular, agriculture is a vulnerable industry to climate change and it causes decrease in crop production worldwide mentioned in the 6th IPCC report. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to prepare alternatives to quickly respond to changes in the growing environment of crops, such as climate change, and ensure food security.

The Rural Development Administration (RDA) has secured the budget of 14 billion US dollars from 2020 to 2027 for climate change response research. A total of 90 R&D projects have been carrying out in four areas: prediction, adaptation, response, and mitigation to prepare effective measures against climate change. First of all, the field of ‘prediction’ to climate change includes to predict and assess the agricultural productivity of 7 major crops and changes in cultivation area of 22 crops using the climate change scenarios. Secondly, the field of ‘adaptation’ to climate change includes to develop and disseminate crop varieties adaptable to high temperature, lack of sunlight, and resistance of pests, and establish the cultivation technologies for tropical and subtropical crops that are domestically applicable. Thirdly, the field of ‘response’ to climate change is to expand the early warming service of agricultural meteorological disaster and develop/disseminate the damage reduction technologies for agricultural products. Lastly, the field of ‘mitigation’ to climate change is to develop and disseminate low-carbon agricultural technologies to achieve carbon neutrality.

Min-Kyeong Kim is the Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (NAS) of Rural Development Administration (RDA). She received her PhD in Soil Science at Yeungnam University. Her main research area includes: 1) to develop climate indicators for water environment through assessing the impact of climate change, and 2) to develop technologies that could minimize the impact of climate change to maintain the function of agricultural ecosystem services. She is currently conducting a research project to develop a computational model to evaluate the impact of climate change, risks in agricultural water environment, and GHGs emission in agriculture in cooperation with USDA- ARS Grassland Soil Water Research Unit and Texas A&M AgriLife Research.

Croplands in the U.S. cover 166 million acres, more than a fifth of the area of the contiguous U.S. Croplands across the country are influenced in a multitude of ways by changes in climate, including rising temperatures, more extreme precipitation events and changes to the composition of the atmosphere. Both impacts and adaptation strategies for climate change vary regionally and with crop type. This seminar highlights some of the climate change effects on croplands and addresses adaptive options for the challenges posed by a changing climate.

Lisa Ainsworth is the Research Leader of the USDA ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit and Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She received her BS in Biology at UCLA and PhD in Crop Sciences from UIUC. Her research addresses crop responses to global atmospheric change and potential solutions to mitigate climate change through agriculture. In 2019, Lisa was awarded the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agricultural Sciences and was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020.

Jin Barnaby is a Research Geneticist of the USDA ARS U.S. National Arboretum, Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit. Her scientific training includes an MS in Biology (Plant Physiology) at Seoul National University and a PhD in Biology (Plant Pathology) from Duke University. Her research addresses adaptive ‘genetics’ x ‘environment’ x ‘management’ strategy for plant and ecosystem health.