Climate Change and Colorado Agriculture: Challenges, Adaptations, and Solutions

Written By Colorado Farm & Food Alliance

Climate change is reshaping agriculture and food systems around the world, presenting both challenges and opportunities. That includes here in western Colorado. 

The impacts range from extreme weather events and water scarcity to growing seasons and crop productivity changes. Agriculture, together with related land-use policies, is a major contributor to the drivers of climate change. 

However, agriculture also holds the potential to adapt to these changes and even serve as a solution to the climate crisis. Here's a look into the intersection of climate change and agriculture, incorporating insights from the Gunnison Basin's climate challenges.

The Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and Food Systems

Extreme Weather Events
Floods, droughts, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense, disrupting global food systems. These events damage crops, degrade soil and strain water resources. In the Gunnison Basin, prolonged droughts and extreme temperature swings have devastated orchards, vineyards, and waterways, impacting agricultural productivity and community livelihoods​ (COFFA Climate Report). Additionally, climate change is altering traditional growing seasons by disrupting planting and harvesting cycles that farmers have relied on for generations (Sweeping global study charts a path forward for climate-resilient agriculture). 

Water Scarcity
Agriculture consumes 70% of global freshwater, and climate change intensifies droughts and reduces water availability. In the Gunnison Basin, a decades-long drought has caused reservoirs to drop below capacity, exacerbating water shortages (COFFA Climate Report )​. Agriculture will need to adapt to using less water. 

Pest and Disease Proliferation
Warmer temperatures and shifting weather patterns expand the range of pests and diseases. For instance, locusts and other pests thrive in warmer climates, devouring crops across affected regions, and plant pathogens like rusts and blights are emerging in new areas due to increased humidity (Five charts that show why our food is not ready for the climate crisis)

Fungus blight on a leaf, one example of pest and diseases that are affecting agriculture.

Adapting Agriculture to a Changing Climate 

Agricultural Adaptation 

Increased heat and drought require adapting our farm and food systems to extreme climate conditions. Below is a summarized list of adaptations farmers can take:  

  • Increase farm irrigation efficiency

  • Build greater moisture-holding capacity in soils by increasing organic matter in the soil

  • Protect fields from damaging winds using trees or hedgerows as windblocks

  • Reduce heat stress on crops: using shade covers, planting in the shade of trees, or planting in the shade of a solar array 

  • Design landscaping for fire protection

  • Reduce heat stress on livestock 

  • Use swales, terraced ponds, and other means of water retention directly in the soil

  • Select fruits, nuts, succulents, and herbaceous perennials that are best suited to warmer, drier climates

  • Keep pollinators in pace and place with arid-adapted crop plants

  • Use cover crops

    Credit: Gary Paul Nabhan 2013 Growing food in a hotter, Drier Land

Pollinators are an important piece of healthy resilient farms

Agriculture as a Solution to Climate Change

Reducing Co2 emissions, Restoring Biodiversity, and Sequestering Carbon

Reducing CO2 emissions 

Improving agricultural practices is one of the most immediately obtainable and significant actions to address the climate crisis. This sector contributes nearly 11% of the nation’s CO2 emissions from livestock production, nitrogen-heavy fertilizers, particularly synthetics usually made from fossil fuels, specific crops, and excessive tilling. 

Agricultural producers can adopt several techniques to reduce CO2 emissions; these are summarized below: 

Shift Agricultural Practices 

  • Nutrient management with organic fertilizers 

  • Sustainable crop intensification for smallholders

  • Cover-Cropping 

  • No- and Low-till practices

The Colorado Farm & Food Alliance is developing programming to help more producers move into or strengthen these practices. Read more about that work here. 

Support Transition to Clean Energy

  • Increasing energy efficiency remains among the most obtainable ways to decrease the need for fossil fuel power across most agricultural systems. 

  • The electrification of farm and food facilities and making these more efficient (shifting HVAC, etc., away from fossil fuels & improving insulation of buildings, etc.) will provide gains across operations from field to processing.

  • Solar on farms: Agrivoltaics are solar energy systems integrated with crop production. This approach not only generates renewable energy but can also shield crops from heat stress (Agrivoltaics for sustainable food, energy and water management in East Africa)​. 

  • The use of zero-emissions electric farm and food delivery vehicles would further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The expansion and increased uptake of more renewable energy should serve and benefit rural communities and livelihoods directly. Check out CO Farm & Food Alliance’s work on renewables, energy equity, and agrivoltaics here.  

Agrivoltaic system integrated with animal grazing

Reduce food waste

Waste is one of the most significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions from our food system. Agricultural waste, from initial processing or wasted products, is part of this problem. But solutions to reduce food waste at all stages, from field to table, are possible and readily available 

  • Support gleaning through organizations like Uproot Colorado, which divert excess crops from farms and orchards into food-sharing programs.

  • Provide food composting programs and facilities for food businesses.

  • Increase green-waste utilization to keep materials from landfills or burning, and upcycle them into usable products, including soil amendments, mulching, and biochar. 

Uproot Colorado is a non-profit that harvests and redistributes surplus, nutrient-dense foods while supporting the resilience of farmers.

Biodiversity Restoration
Restoring natural habitats within agricultural landscapes can stabilize ecosystems and improve resilience. Incorporating pollinator-friendly plants and rotating crops are effective strategies that benefit both biodiversity and productivity.

Carbon Sequestration
Agriculture can play a significant role in capturing carbon. Techniques such as no-till farming, cover cropping, and silvopasture enhance soil carbon storage. For example, converting intensively tilled land to no-till in the Gunnison Basin could sequester thousands of metric tons of CO2 annually​. We write more on this topic in our Climate Report “The Gunnison River Basin: Ground Zero in the Climate Emergency.” 

Conclusion

Agriculture is at a crossroads. As climate change intensifies, the sector must adapt to new realities while leveraging its potential to mitigate the crisis. By adopting innovative practices, restoring biodiversity, and implementing supportive policies, agriculture can transition from being a victim of climate change to a critical part of the solution. 

The Gunnison River Basin and western Colorado are well positioned to make agriculture, land conservation and other nature-based climate solutions – along with a transition to clean energy  – central to our regional climate response, strengthening farm and food system resilience. Collaborative efforts across all levels of government, communities, and industries are essential to building a secure and sustainable food system for the future.

Colorado Farm & Food Alliance
Previous

Rural Resilience in a Time of Change
Next

Seed Money: Help Us Grow a Cold-Hardy Orchard and Medicinal Herb Garden