Climate adaptation information needs of limited resource farmers in California.

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4676276/v1

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Climate adaptation information needs of limited resource farmers in California.

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4676276/v1

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California’s agricultural production is facing ever-growing challenges due to climate change. We conducted a needs assessment of farmers in California in 2023, to better understand their climate change challenges, experiences, and resource and information needs. This study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design with a questionnaire created and distributed using Qualtrics. Out of the 341 usable survey responses post-data cleaning, 75 selected were limited-resource farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, and first generation farmers. Two focus groups were conducted in the Central Valley of California involving 19 smallholder Hmong farmers to ascertain the climate-related impacts experienced by these farmers, delve into the strategies to tackle climate change risks, and identify climate change information and resources needed to mitigate challenges. The survey and focus group show similar findings, indicating that farmers are very concerned about several issues, including increased uncertainty in irrigation water availability, increased crop damage due to extreme heat, and worsening drought severity on their farms. Survey and focus group results also revealed farmers are changing their irrigation practices to mitigate climate-related risks, particularly extreme heat and severe drought on their farms. Focus group discussions emphasized adaptations like using shading and adjusting planting seasons to protect crops, while survey results highlighted the adaptation strategies aimed at soil health improvement, including building organic matter, mulching, and adopting reduced or no-till approaches. While already implementing climate adaptation strategies to mitigate risks, these farmers also expressed needs for more education on specific adaptation practices, including weather prediction tools, methods to enhance soil health, and efficient irrigation practices. Additionally, they sought guidance about applying for government funding opportunities, access to insurance, and climate adaptive strategies. Finally, Hmong farmers broadly indicated they preferred in-person workshops featuring climate-related information presented through videos and hands-on activities, which could effectively enhance their ability to adapt to climate change challenges.

Climate change

needs assessment

extension program development

smallholder farmer.

Climate change is altering global weather patterns, including those in California, and both directly and indirectly impacting agriculture. Changes include temperature increases, heat waves, and droughts as well as shifting patterns of water availability and periodic scarcity. Indirect effects include weed, pest and disease pressure, and even factors like wildfire smoke (Green 2021; Parker et al. 2022; Pathak et al. 2018). For example, the 2015 record breaking drought led to 540,000 acres of farmland being fallowed, resulting in the loss of 21,000 jobs and a decrease of $2.7 billion in revenue for the state’s economy (Howitt et al. 2015). The severe conditions also caused thousands of domestic wells to run dry, disproportionately impacting disinvested and rural communities in California.

Research studies in California have highlighted farmers’ lived experiences and observations of severe weather changes over time, alluding to heatwaves, droughts, and flooding, conditions that negatively impact agriculture in the state (Pathak et al. 2018) and acknowledging that the climate is different now than in the past (Petersen-Rockney 2022a). Research shows that there is an urgent need to assist farmers in California and surrounding communities as climate change worsens (Lum 2018). In California, irrespective of farmers’ belief in climate change they still implement climate adaptation practices on their farms (Petersen-Rockney 2022b) to mitigate climate change risks, and farmers’ climate risk perception centers on farmers’ firsthand experience with the effects of climate change, and notably on their perceived changes in water availability (Haden et al. 2012).

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices provide a suite of approaches that growers can consider implementing on their farms to reduce climate change risks. CSA enhances food security by supporting the sustainable increase in agricultural productivity and income, climate change adaptation and resilience, and opportunities geared at reducing greenhouse gas emissions (FAO 2013; Fusco et al. 2020; Lipper et al. 2014; Singh and Singh 2017). Leveraging the uptake of climate-smart practices by small-scale, socially disadvantaged farmers in California is vital to reducing climate change risks.

A needs assessment was conducted in 2023, to ascertain California farmers, ranchers, and technical service providers' climate change challenges, adaptation approaches, and their resources and information needs to mitigate climate change risks. The needs assessment was an initial phase of a larger project, the multifaceted pathways to climate smart agriculture, with farmers, ranchers, and technical assistance providers. We surveyed farmers in California and organized focus groups with Hmong farmers in the Central Valley in California. For this study, we focused on limited resources, socially disadvantaged, and first generation farmers in California. Limited resource farmers are defined as farmers having low farm sales and low household income for 2 years in a row while socially disadvantaged farmers are farmers who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudices because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual quality (USDA 2024). Many of their operations are small-scale farms, which are primarily family-owned with a gross cash farm income of less than $350,000 (Hoppe and MacDonald 2013). Small-scale farms produce a substantial amount of food per acre of land (Dahlquist-Willard et al. 2015) and contribute considerably to US food availability (Godfray et al. 2010). Moreover, they are often generalized as beginning farmers (operated a farm for less than 10 years) under many programs, which potentially hampers effectiveness of outreach and support efforts (Munden-Dixon et al. 2018; USDA 2024). Carolan (2018) referenced first generation farmer, beginning, as someone who has operated a farm or ranch for not more than 10 consecutive years, which is in line with the USDA definition of beginning farmers (USDA 2024).

The Central Valley is home to Hmong American families (Lee 2005). The Hmong farmers are part of an ethnic minority and socially disadvantaged group among Asian or Asian-American farmers, subject to facing racial and ethnic prejudices (USDA 2024), and experienced difficulty accessing resources available to them due in part to language barriers (Dahlquist-Willard et al. 2015). The Hmong farmers typically operate on a small-scale with limited resources, managing an average farm size of about 5.6 acres (Thao et al. 2019). However, Hmong farmers, like other small-scale farmers, struggle to maintain crop production in the face of extreme climate events.

Research on small-scale, limited-resource, minority farmers, including Hmong farmers, is an understudied population in the US (Thao 2021). Gaining a more comprehensive understanding of limited-resource farmers' needs can facilitate targeted allocation and mobilization of resources for strategic planning and decision-making. This needs assessment survey and focus group findings would guide the organization of training sessions and workshops aimed at equipping farmers with the necessary knowledge and resources to effectively manage climate change risks. Also, both results will guide the development of extension and educational programs to enhance the adoption of climate adaptation approaches to reduce climate change impacts for farmers in California.

2.1 Research design

We employed a convergent parallel mixed-method survey design (Creswell and Creswell 2017). We combined quantitative survey and qualitative focus group methods to identify limited-resource farmers and Hmong smallholder farmers’ climate-related concerns, impacts, adaptation strategies, and information and resource needs to mitigate climate change risks.

2.2 Data collection

A survey questionnaire was designed in a participatory and culturally responsive manner (Koundinya et al. 2023) and distributed via Qualtrics using emails purchased from the Farm MarketID (FMID). Project partners also distributed the survey using QR Codes and anonymous links. Face and content validity were established through expert review of the questionnaire by all project team leads and 16 people who served as expert validation panel, which included the 10 regional leads for the cropping system and rangeland, an education and training core team member, 4 Agricultural and Natural Resources (ANR) specialists, and a university professor. The final usable dataset generated after accounting for bots/spam infiltration and incomplete responses was 341 and it is available in Pinzon et al. (2023). Out of these usable data, (n = 75) were identified as limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers. Out of these 341 usable data, 75 participants selected: I am “a socially disadvantaged farmer (e.g., a farmer who has been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudices because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual quality,” “a limited resource farmer (having low income from sales and low household income for 2 years in a row,” and “a first generation farmer” in the survey. For purposes of this study, the term, limited-resource farmers will be used more frequently to represent the socially disadvantaged, limited-resource farmers, and first generation farmers. Reliability was established using Cronbach Alpha, and results show high internal consistency (ɑ=0.949). Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 28 and descriptive results were presented using tables.

Two focus groups were conducted with Hmong farmers in the Central Valley, California. Each focus group and the members of the groups were treated as cases and data were collected, analyzed case-wise, interpreted, and presented both on a case-by-case basis and collectively while negotiating distinctiveness and similar aspects from their responses (Cresswell and Poth 2018). The participants in our focus groups were purposely recruited by the project team in collaboration with the Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Small Farms and Community Educators. Focus groups were conducted on March 1, 2023, in Merced (five farmer participants), and on March 8, 2023, during a farm field tour for Hmong farmers in Fresno (14 farmer participants) located in the Central Valley of California. The Fresno focus group members were recruited via their participation in a United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG). A gift card ($25 USD) was provided to all participants to incentivize participation.

The interview guide consisted of 11 open-ended questions to guide the focus group discussions on climate change impacts and challenges, the adaptation practices and approaches, and resources and information needed to reduce climate change risks. The focus group questions were developed to understand farmers' climate-related impacts on their farming operations, approaches to reduce climate change risks, and farmers' resources and information needs. The focus group guide was reviewed by our interdisciplinary research team based on individual expertise in climate change, agriculture, extension education, program evaluation, small farms, and social science research methods.

Six research team members (the project director, two project managers, a postdoctoral scholar, and two Extension experts) participated in conducting the interviews. Two research team members were native Hmong speakers and served as enumerators and moderators. To support a natural flow of conversation (Isreal and Galindo-Gonzalez 2008), we began with relationship building by welcoming our interviewees into the room where we organized tables in a square formation to encourage face-to-face interactions. Focus group moderators introduced the research team and the team leader presented the project goals and objectives. Following the Internal Review Board (IRB) protocol, consent information was read, and verbal consent was required before the focus group conversation began. To be culturally responsive, we chose not to audio record the focus group conversations because Small Farms and Community Educators expressed concerns that some farmers might feel uncomfortable speaking while being recorded. Group moderators began the conversation by asking participants to share their experiences with climate change on their farm operations. Our two Hmong-speaking research team members who served as moderators guided the conversations and took notes. Four of the English-speaking team members also took notes and memos especially when farmers responded in English. The two focus group conversations lasted for approximately 60 minutes each.

2.3 Data analysis

For data analysis and interpretation, Hmong-speaking moderators first met with the project team members to debrief, discuss, and compile transcripts and emerging themes from the conversations. We adopted a narrative analysis approach with in-depth reading, looking for perspectives with similar themes and those that appeared distinct among the cases from and across the groups. We wrote analytic memos while inductively extracting themes and generating meaning from the data (Lincoln and Guba 1985; Saldana 2016). We shared our emergent themes using a Google shared document merging the differences and commonalities of narratives members found. We reached a consensus and merged the final results based on the themes identified from the protocol guide and the focus group results. We examined our subjective reflections to reduce study bias by reporting research findings based on participants’ voices and notes taken during the discussions to increase the credibility of findings. The results are presented in the form of thick descriptions (Lincoln and Guba 1985) incorporating word verbatim statements and sharing insights from the results.

3.1 Farmer’s demographic results

The demographic results of the respondents were more males (n = 59, 78.7%). More than half (n = 38, 55.9%) were white, followed by Hispanic/Latinx, or Spanish origin (n = 16, 23.5%), and Asian/Asian American (n = 10, 14.7%) and had a mean age of 58.5 years. These farmers grow diverse crops, but fruits (n = 43, 57.3%) and nuts (n = 32, 42.7%) were most prominent. They also produce some vegetables (n = 12, 16%).

The focus group results show that about a third of the participants were male (n = 13, 68.42%). Majority of the focus group participants (n =17, 89.47%) grow mixed vegetables and are diverse crop growers producing some permanent crops, which is in line with other studies finding that Hmong farmers in California grow diverse crops (Dahlquist-Willard et al. 2020; Thao et al. 2019).

3.2 Climate Change Concerns of Limited-Resource Farmers in California

3.2.1 Climate-related impacts

The survey results in Table 1 show that farmers were very concerned (62.7%) about increased uncertainty in water available for irrigation and reduced groundwater availability (55.4%) on their farms. Increased crop damage due to extreme heat events was the most temperature-related impact farmers were very concerned about (40%), while increased drought severity was the most disaster-related impact farmers were very concerned about (44%) on their farms.

Table 1: Extent of concern of climate-related impacts experienced by limited resource farmers

Note: The overall needs assessment data for the extent of concern of climate-related impacts on farmers’ operations in California can be accessed in Ikendi et al., 2024.

3.2.2 Climate-related impacts experienced by Hmong farmers

In our first focus group question on what climate-related impacts Hmong farmers were experiencing, three themes emerged from the focus group analysis: temperature, drought, and flooding. Related to the temperature theme, high temperatures and extreme heat resonated as impacting farming operations. A farmer from Merced said, “hot weather has ‘burned’ my plants and vegetables, or sometimes my plants don’t emerge at the seedling stage. For example, bell peppers are burned/brown on the skin, and cilantro and green onions do not emerge from seeds or bolt early.” Another farmer from Fresno recounted, “chillies on my farm burn from intense heat and soil temperatures.” Yet another farmer from Fresno echoed that “my lemon grass leaves wilt, burn, and/or are stunted due to extreme heat.” Similarly, another farmer in Merced said, “during summer my tomatoes are splitting.” These perceptions are consistent with prior research demonstrating that the projected extreme heat resulting from climate change exerts stress on crops, leading to limited crop production and reductions in crop quality (Parker et al. 2020). Unusual and unprecedented cold temperatures resonated as impacting farming operations. As recounted by another farmer in Merced, “repeated and unexpected freezes in February and March make it hard to prep early spring season crops.”

The theme of drought was another climate change challenge that emerged. Drought is a severe issue in California, affecting agriculture. The 2012-2016 drought was associated with a drastic decrease in snowpack and water sources in the Sierra Mountains, a great source of irrigation water for California (Greene 2021). Drought is causing farmers to plant less and reduces yields. A farmer in Fresno said, “if there is no water, farmers may stop farming or find other land to farm…. drought has reduced planting; increased fallowing which is not voluntary.” Drought has impacted water sources and water availability for farmers in California. The participants in the two focus groups alluded that their major water sources were private agriculture/domestic wells. A farmer in Fresno echoed, “large farmers dig wells to go thousands of feet and safeguard water to use during drought periods, while we as small-scale growers are only able to dig a couple hundred feet.” Another farmer recounted, “large farms irrigating their crops suck up much water and reduce groundwater – difficult for small farms like ours to irrigate at the same time with the large farms.” Drought has led to an increase in farm irrigation practices with farmers shifting to drip irrigation to mitigate droughts. A farmer in Fresno recounted, “I now use two lines of drip tape with manually widened holes per row because I need more water, especially when it is hot.”. As narrated by a farmer from Merced, “I am now using drip tape and only watering at night after or near sunset because it’s more effective.” Howitt et al. (2014) posit that the impact of drought in California led to increased cost of groundwater use, revenue losses to crop farming, and increased food crop prices.

Another theme that emerged was flooding. Farmers were asked if they have experienced flooding due to too much rain or unpredictable rain? and how has this flooding affected their farm operations? Not so much was discussed by farmers on flooding due to unprecedented and unpredicted rainfall. I believe farmers didn’t discuss this since during the focus group conversation growers were in the middle of their largest, most unpredictable (impactful) rainfall for the first time since 2017/2018 in California. No farmer in Merced brought up flooding as an issue in their farming operations. About 60% of farmers in Merced have been farming for 5 years or less and were in the course of experiencing their first impactful rainfall since they started farming. Moreover, only farmers in Fresno, did express flooding due to unpredictable and unprecedented rainfall. When we probed into the Hmong farmers’ experiences with flooding, a farmer from Fresno recounted “flooding caused my plants to die and crop loss.” A second Fresno farmer said, “bad weather / flooding of fields forced me to be unable to do field work which caused planting my crops to a later date than usual timing.”

In addition, we also asked Hmong farmers what other challenges they were experiencing on their farms due to climate change. Wildfire and smoke were other challenges raised. A farmer in Fresno recounted, “wildfire and smoke contaminate the wind, air, plants and leaves too much dust on leaves, requiring me to wash leaves and plants; potentially making my fruits and vegetables unmarketable.” A second farmer said, “As small farmers, if we lose our crops, we cannot survive, small farmers can’t recover as compared to large farmers.” This is because Hmong farmers have small farm size compared to large-scale farmers and this limits their ability to access financial and insurance coverage when faced with a loss compared to large-scale farmers.

3.3 Strategies for reducing climate change risks

To reduce climate change risk, farmers were asked to select the adaptation practices they are currently implementing to reduce climate change risks on their farms. The survey results show that more than half (57.3%) of the limited resource farmers are currently changing their irrigation practices. These farmers are also building soil organic matter (46.5%), and others are improving soil health through mulching (43.8%), reduced or no-till practices (43.1%), and the use of cover crops (41.1%) on their farms.

Table 2: Adaptation practices currently implemented by limited resource farmers to reduce climate change risks

3.3.1 Strategies to reduce climate change risks by Hmong farmers

Our second focus group question was to understand what strategies limited-resource farmers have used to reduce climate change risks on their farm operations. The themes that emerged from the focus group discussions included frequent watering, shading, and irrigation strategies. These strategies were used to mitigate extreme and high temperatures and drought on farmers’ operations. In terms of what farmers were doing to combat extreme heat on their farm operations, farmers stated that they water more frequently and that they implement shading strategies. A farmer from Fresno recounted “high temperatures requiring the need to water more frequently.” However, frequent watering and providing plants with too much water cause plants to rot triggering substantial losses to farmers. A tomato farmer from Merced narrated “adding more water to tomatoes results in rotting tomatoes [too much water]. Whereas heat has been burning the leaves and branches, watering more to reduce this loss causes “roots to rot,” as stated by one Merced farmer. To mitigate the climate change challenges due to extreme heat, Hmong farmers are using shades to protect crops during hot weather. With respect to shading, a farmer in Merced said, “I grow peas on a trellis – blooms, and leaves are shedding from plants as they grow.” Another farmer in Fresno recounted “in the last years, I have used black shade structures to protect plants from direct sunlight and high temperatures. Other strategies highlighted by farmers include planting crops with a short planting to harvesting period and irrigating frequently. A Fresno farmer said, “I am planting shorter season crops.” Another farmer in Fresno recounted, “I irrigate more frequently, with shorter cycles of watering, but more frequent intervals.” Also, farmers highlighted some strategies they were using to combat drought. A farmer from Fresno recounted “our crop cycles are different from the past; we use high tunnels for various benefits – starting crops earlier or extending crop season.” Farmers are also strategic with regard to irrigation scheduling. However, our conversation did not include strategies to reduce risks associated with precipitation and flooding.

3.4 Resources and information needs

3.4.1 Need for information on adaptation practices

Next, we asked farmers to indicate their level of need for information on adaptation practices. The survey results in Table 3 show limited-resource farmers' need for information on climate-related issues. Applying for government assistance (78.6%), secure access to insurance (74.3%), transition to renewable energy for farm use (71.8%), build soil organic matter (68.9%) and reduce reliance on groundwater (67.6%) were the top five information needs. These percentages were calculated by combining the number of respondents who selected some need and high need on a Likert-type scale.

Table 3: Need for information by limited resource farmers

Note: The values of some needs and high needs are in percentages. The number of observations (n) is based on the total responses for each Likert-type scale question.

3.4.2 Hmong farmer's resources and information needs

Finally, to understand farmers' resource and information needs, we asked Hmong farmers about their usage of weather decision and prediction tools and what their climate adaptation information needs were. The following themes emerged from the focus group interview: place-based knowledge, decision-support tools (DSTs)/biophysical data, funding, soil/crop rotation management practices, and economics/funding. For place-based knowledge, farmers indicated that they used their intuition and common-sense knowledge, as recounted by a farmer in Fresno, “I have a long-time experience in farming, I use my own sense and knowledge of weather and when is best to plant.” Other farmers were interested in DSTs; a Fresno farmer said, “I am interested in regular updates on weather predictions and potential disasters.” A farmer in Merced said, “I need information about weather tools, soil testing … and crop rotation that would help me to know what to add after each succession of crops.” Farmers also talked about the need for information and the topics they would like covered in extension education events; for example, a farmer in Merced said “I am interested in information on seed selection for drought tolerant species, equipment access …. maybe soil testing.” Another farmer in Merced noted, “I need information in regulating outdoors vs indoor temperatures; bugs/pests, material for freezing versus high heat [for hoop houses and greenhouses].” Farmers also highlighted the need for information regarding funding to help cover the cost of trying a new program on their farm. A farmer in Merced said, “I need information on funding support; and cost-benefit analysis on trying a project on my farm.”

We further asked farmers how they want the climate change information to be disseminated to them. A farmer in Merced shared, “In-person teaching, joint classroom, and hands-on activities – perhaps watching videos together” will work best for them. Another farmer in Merced added, “I would not want to watch videos online by myself.” In-person training for the farmers so that farmers can discuss together the feasible strategies are some recommendations from the Hmong farmers during the focus group conversation.

Extreme weather and climate change are having a significant impact on limited resources and small-scale Hmong farmers in California. Our survey results revealed that, farmers are very concerned about several issues, including the increased uncertainty in water availability for irrigation and ground water availability, increased crop damage caused by extreme heat, and worsening severity of drought on their farms. Our focus group findings reveal similar challenges. Specifically, farmers expressed concerns about increased crop damage due to extreme heat, and the escalating severity of droughts on their farms. The impacts of wildfire and smoke were other concerns highlighted by Hmong farmers. Climate change challenges are requiring farmers in California to adopt climate adaptive practices. Both the survey and focus group results indicated similar findings among limited-resource farmers in California, who are changing irrigation practices to mitigate climate change risks associated with extreme heat and drought on their farms. Additionally, the focus group results highlighted the use of shades to protect crops during hot weather and adjustments to crop planting seasons. In contrast, adaptive strategies aimed at improving soil health, such as building soil organic matter, mulching, and adopting reduced or no-till approaches, were specifically highlighted in the survey results. Although limited-resource farmers, including Hmong farmers in California, are implementing some climate adaptation strategies such as altering irrigation practices, frequent watering, shading, mulching, and reduced or no-till approaches to mitigate climate change risks, they indicated a need for more information on accessing financial assistance to implement adaptation practices and assessing climate-based decision support and monitoring tools.

Limited-resource farmers including Hmong smallholder farmers, face multifaceted challenges. Overall, farmers expressed the highest need for support with government assistance and insurance access. Specifically, Hmong farmers indicated the need for information accessing funding to cover the cost of trying new programs on their farms to reduce climate change risks. They also requested information on adaptation practices and tools, including soil testing, crop rotation, irrigation efficiency, and transition to renewable energy for farm use. Specifically, Hmong farmers seek guidance on utilizing weather tools and are also requesting information on bug and pest management.

On this basis, we recommend that Extension and local agricultural programs organize in-person and hands-on training specifically focused on the information needs highlighted by limited-resource and Hmong farmers. We also recommend that, in addition to already existing training on practices (which extension does a lot of), extension should prioritize supporting limited-resource and immigrant farmers (such as Hmong) farmers in accessing government resources, financial planning tools, and decision support technologies as evident from our needs assessment and focus groups. Extension training and workshops should focus on topics including transitioning to renewable energy, the use of weather monitoring tools, cost-benefit analysis, methods for improving soil health, irrigation and water management and pests management. Extension agents who are multilingual should participate in designing and conducting the training to ensure relevance and accessibility (Taku-Forchu et al. 2023a) and develop materials and outreach strategies that are inclusive of these farmer’s languages and cultural contexts.

We recommend that limited-resource farmers as well as Hmong farmers be provided with long-term climate and seasonal weather prediction tools to help them with long-term agriculture planning (CalAgroClimate, n.d.). For example, CalAgroClimate (calagroclimate.org) is a web-based climate data visualization tool and resource repository on climate and agriculture that provides specific crop and climate information to California farmers (Johnson et al. 2023). Hmong farmers highlighted their preference for in-person, joint classroom, and hands-on activities so that farmers can discuss together what strategies are best suited to mitigate climate change risk in their farming operations. We recommend that in-person workshops and training should be organized, providing Hmong farmers with hands-on activities that will increase Hmong farmers' ability to make informed climate-based decisions on their farming operations. Providing limited-resource farmers with the support to access climate adaptation resources and implement practices to mitigate climate change impacts is vital, especially as they are the most likely to be impacted by extreme climate events and least likely to access support after a climate disaster.

Climate change poses a threat to food production in California. Our research highlights the need for extension and agricultural professionals to leverage information on applying for government funding, access to financial risk management, water management strategies, soil health, crop rotation, pest management, cost-benefit analysis, implementing hands-on activities and group based video learning opportunities on climate-related information during training and workshops. Also, to mitigate climate change risks, extension and agricultural professionals need to re-orient their teaching and training approaches to foster long-term agricultural planning such as providing limited-resource farmers including Hmong farmers with accessible long-term climate prediction tools to help reduce climate change risks on their farms. Farmer-to-farmer learning, which is the provision of training by farmers to their peers (Franzel et al. 2019) is important especially when working with small-scale indigenous and limited-resource farmers. Farmers were identified as a key source of information for their peers with farmers indicating a strong preference to receive agricultural-related information from other farmers (Taku-Forchu et al. 2023b). Research shows that farmer-to-farmer learning has been successful, and farmers rely on their peers as their primary information source for agricultural innovation (Franzel et al. 2019). Organizing farmer-to-farmer field days where fellow farmers who have successfully implemented certain adaptation practices or doing things differently from other farmers in their community and are willing to show their peers to follow such approaches while learning from the process is important (Habermann et al. 2022). Language and communication barriers was an issue since some Hmong farmers could not speak English. Extension and technical assistance providers should develop training manuals, training videos incorporating their local language, including fostering peer-to-peer learning in the development of information and resources to improve farmers’ understanding of climate change and climate adaptation practices (Johnson et al. 2023). Extension and agricultural stakeholders should organize educational programs, workshops, and training to communicate and disseminate information on climate adaptation practices taking into consideration resources and information needs identified in the findings to foster adaptation more rapidly for California limited-resource farmers including Hmong farmers to enhance their resilience to climate change.

Funding

This work was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Grant Number 2022-68017-36358.

Acknowledgments

We want to thank all the farmers in California who completed the online survey and provided data for this study. We also appreciate all Hmong farmers in the Central Valley, California who participated in the focus group discussions.

Author contribution

All authors who are part of the multifaceted pathways to climate-smart agriculture grant project contributed to the conception and design of the study. Namah Taku-Forchu led material preparation and data collection. Moreover, all authors reviewed, edited, and made changes to the survey questionnaire and focus group questions. Samuel Ikendi analyzed the survey data. Namah Taku-Forchu developed the first draft of the manuscript. Vikram Koundinya and Lauren Parker provided the first and second intense reviews of the manuscript, and all authors edited, commented, and provided feedback. In addition, all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Research Involving Human Subjects

This study was approved for human research under Institutional Review Board Number 1841798-2 by the University of California, Davis.

Supplementary materials

Data and data cleaning resulting from bots and spam during data collection - The following is a pre-print version available online open access at “AI-powered fraud and the erosion of online survey integrity: An analysis of 31 fraud detection strategies.” https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/95tka

The comprehensive needs assessment survey results for farmers in California can be accessed in the article “Climate smart agriculture: accessing the needs and perceptions of California’s farmers”: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2024.1395547

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Table 1: Extent of concern of climate-related impacts experienced by limited resource farmers

Climate-Related Impacts	n	Extent of Concern
Climate-Related Impacts	n	Concerned (%)	Very Concerned (%)
Water-related impacts
Increased uncertainty in water availability for irrigation	75	18.7	62.7
Reduced groundwater availability	74	18.9	55.4
Reduced water availability for irrigation	75	20.0	53.3
Increased crop/water stress	75	26.0	45.3
Temperature-related impacts
Increased crop damage due to extreme heat	75	21.3	40.0
Increased farm loss due to climate-related disaster	74	36.5	31.1
Increased frost damage	74	28.4	21.6
Increased pest and disease pressure	75	29.3	21.3
Reduced chill accumulations	74	29.7	10.8
Disasters-related impacts
Increased drought severity	75	26.7	44.0
Increased crop loss due to climate-related disaster	75	34.7	33.3
Increased crop damage due to wildfire or smoke	75	20.0	20.0
Increased wildfires severity	75	28.0	17.3
Increased flooding	75	17.3	14.7

Table 2: Adaptation practices currently implemented by limited resource farmers to reduce climate change risks

Adaptation Practices	n	Currently Implementing (%)
Change irrigation practices	75	57.3
Build soil organic matter	71	46.5
Mulching	73	43.8
Reduce soil disturbance (reduce or no-till)	72	43.1
Use of cover crops	73	41.1
Reduce reliance on groundwater	74	29.3
Transition to renewable energy for farm use	74	28.4
Apply for government assistance	72	26.4
Secure access to insurance	74	23.0
Use of drought tolerant varieties	74	23.0
Change market strategy	73	20.5
Increase ecosystem services through farm scaping	74	14.9
Reduce input use	73	12.3
Water harvesting	75	10.7
Concentrate surface water on less acreage	72	9.7
Reduce dependency on fossil fuels	74	8.1

Table 3: Need for information by limited resource farmers

Need for Information on adaptation practices	n	Level of Need
Need for Information on adaptation practices	n	Some Need	High Need
Financial assistance and security
Apply for government assistance	70	34.3	44.3
Secure access to insurance	70	42.9	31.4
Earn off-farm income	71	35.2	25.4
Energy transition
Transition to renewable energy for farm use	71	35.2	36.6
Reduce dependency on fossil fuels	70	28.6	27.1
Water management
Water harvesting	75	40.0	24.0
Change irrigation practices	75	41.3	21.3
Reduce reliance on groundwater	74	51.4	16.2
Concentrate surface water on less acreage	74	44.6	9.5
Soil and crop management
Build soil organic matter	74	48.6	20.3
Use of drought tolerant varieties	75	37.3	20.0
Use of cover crops	75	34.7	17.3
Mulching	75	44	10.7
Market and production strategy
Change market strategy	68	44.1	17.6
Reduce input use	71	38	16.9
Switch to new crops	75	30.7	14.7
Add on-farm enterprise	68	35.3	13.2
Increase ecosystem services through farm scaping	70	47.1	8.6

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Climate adaptation information needs of limited resource farmers in California.

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1 Introduction

2 Methods and Procedures

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4 Conclusion and Recommendations

5 Implications

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