National Drought Mitigation Center

Climate-Smart Indigenous Agriculture: Drought Planning and Adaptation with New Mexico Pueblos

Indigenous farmers and ranchers in the U.S. Southwest face increasing climate stresses such as long-term drought and warming. Pueblos, Tribes, and individual farmers and ranchers are challenged with building the capacity to undertake soil health, grazing, and food security projects needed to build resilience and climate-smart agricultural systems. And they are doing so in a context of limited resources, and in some cases, small land bases. The goal of this project is knowledge co-production with tribal communities to enhance agricultural drought/climate adaptation. This includes building an understanding of past and current indigenous climate adaptation knowledge and building the capacity that is needed within Tribal agencies and organizations to help farmers, ranchers, and natural resource departments successfully apply for and receive USDA NRCS funding and technical support for climate-smart agricultural projects that improve farm sustainability and outcomes during drought. We expect to improve understanding of traditional drought knowledge and technical training needs, train a cohort of college-age students as future drought and conservation leaders, support technical capacity development for pueblos and tribes through co-designed trainings on drought adaptation and conservation activity planning and implementation, and bring technical experts together with tribal farmers and ranchers to share knowledge learned and build relationships for working together towards climate-smart indigenous agriculture.

See More Projects