UMES Extension will serve the Delmarva Peninsula as a partner in a project to help rural coastal communities be more resilient to climate change. The Climate-Ready Coasts initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA is a $1.97 million investment in high-impact projects that create climate and coastal hazard solutions.
Beginning October 1, University of Maryland Eastern Shore will conduct regional activities to help extension educators and related groups hone their effectiveness as partners in resiliency efforts. The focus is in coastal communities in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia where agriculture plays a key role in the local economy and culture.
“To be a climate-ready coast and nation, the issues facing our farmers must be met,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. said in a July 26 announcement. “This project will help ensure the continuation of our food supply, and also help farming exist as a healthy means for supporting families.”
Virginia Tech, the grant awardee and project lead, is partnering with UMES and sister Historically Black 1890 Land Grant Universities, including Delaware State and Virginia State.
“UMES Extension, like our partners, will create a needs assessment and hold community listening sessions to see what is taking place in our area to help mitigate climate change, difficulties being experienced and exploring ways to improve resiliency,” said Nazia Arbab, an assistant professor and agribusiness resource economics specialist with UMES Extension and principal investigator for UMES’ subaward on the project.
Issues to be addressed by the project, she said, include rising sea levels, increasing temperature changes, changing weather patterns and their impact on agriculture and communities, particularly rural, low-income and minority.
The grant awards are being made under the Biden Administration’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, a competitive, $575 million program funded through its Inflation Reduction Act.
The subaward is supported by the “Leveraging Cooperative Extension to Build an Enduring Capacity for Equitable and Inclusive Resilience in Rural Agricultural Communities across Coastal Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware,” Cooperative Agreement NA24NOSX473C0115 from the U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
