Using Partnerships to Improve Climate-Based Decision Tools in the Corn Belt.

Building resilience to climate variability and change is essential for the long-term success of agricultural production.  Solutions to this critical issue, however, will not be successfully developed and implemented in isolation.  Useful to Usable (U2U): Transforming Climate Variability and Change Information for Cereal Crop Producers is a multidisciplinary USDA NIFA-funded project charged with developing enhanced climate-based decision tools to support improved farm planning in the Midwest under changing climate conditions.  U2U leverages existing relationships that State Climatologists and Regional Climate Centers have with the agricultural community.  New partnerships are being forged nationally and internationally that will improve the effectiveness and transferability of U2U-developed information and products.  This presentation will discuss the anatomy of these partnerships and how they are strengthening the U2U project.