The Dry Farming Institute

Western Water Resilience Collaborative

Building Community for Agricultural Resilience

Learn about our November 2024 Water Resilience Workshops for Western Ag Advisors

In 2023, DFI began working with a collaborative team on the west coast in support of water resilience on our farms and ranches.

Field Day at Oregon State University

For farmers and ranchers along the west coast, water is at the heart of it all. Too much water, or not enough, can make or break a season or a business. One thing is certain moving forward, water availability will continue to be increasingly unpredictable.  

Smaller scale and beginning producers often lack access to water. While producers across the board are having to deal with new realities of reduced access to water, smaller scale producers often are the first to see water supply reductions. They are also more often farming in areas prone to flooding, and have limited resources to bounce back from flooding events. Many smaller scale and newer producers are farming on the urban fringe and they are more likely to be using expensive municipal water.

Our collaborative has come together to support these producers by working across geographic lines and investing in peer-to-peer learning. Our goal is to better understand and provide resources to adapt to this new level of water supply uncertainty throughout the west coast. 

Many of these producers are already adapting and creating innovative solutions out of necessity. They are building healthy soils, creating new infrastructure, and community-based disaster resilience plans. While every farm and ranch is unique in its geography, ecology, and management needs, there are water resilience strategies that can fit many farms. We look forward to sharing these resilience strategies stories more broadly, to provide inspiration and  tangible, replicable solutions. 

Our Collaborative Approach: Working better by working together 

Learning Circle for NE Oregon Women in Ranching / AFT

DFI is coordinating a group of growers, agricultural advisors, researchers, and organizers, all focused on the future of farming and ranching in the west. We aim to contribute to reconnecting healthy ecological and social systems–promoting biodiversity, economic viability for producers, and equitable food access in communities.

Our work supports integrated research, education, and outreach on western water resilience to better serve producers. Our work is rooted in building community and sharing resources so that producers along the west coast (Washington, Oregon, and California) can thrive in a changing climate. 

Collaborative Efforts 2024 – 2026

We’ll share region-specific water resilience strategies for small and midscale producers and those from historically underserved groups. We’ll do this work through on-farm demonstration sites, field days, peer-to-peer learning circles, agricultural service provider training, and case studies. 

Our team includes: American Farmland Trust, the Dry Farming Institute, Oregon State University Extension, the Washington Water Trust, the USDA California and Northwest Climate Hubs and Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network. This project is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Extension, Education, and USDA Climate Hubs Partnership program (Award #2023-67019-39349), focused on providing effective, translatable, and scalable approaches to address climate change through regional partnerships.

Supporting a network of agricultural service providers

We will build the capacity of agricultural professionals in California, Oregon, and Washington to support growers in transitioning to water resilient strategies. We are creating a regional community of practice through online training, networking, and on-farm/ranch events.

Investing in Peer-to-Peer Learning & Amplifying Lessons Learned  

We will build region-specific resources for small and underserved producers, and engage a broader audience through demonstrations, on-farm events, and storytelling. 

Demonstration Farms

image of a soil sample in an auger on a farm
Soil sampling at Kasama Farm

12 hands-on demonstration projects on farms across the west coast will highlight regionally appropriate water resilience strategies and provide experiential learning opportunities for producers. These farms will host field tours and be the focus of case studies. Demonstration farms will experiment with crop varieties, soil management practices, water management solutions, and dry farming.

2025 Demonstration Sites

2024 Demonstration Sites

Peer to Peer Learning Circles

Outback Farm Western WA University, Bellingham

Learning circles are smaller events offered specifically for beginning, small scale, and underserved producers across the west coast. At these on-farm events, farmers and ranchers increase their knowledge and access to resources related to climate change and water-resilience practices. These learning circles are opportunities to find and build community with producers facing similar challenges and finding innovative solutions in a region–so that producers have resources beyond the event. Potential topics we’ll cover include: composting, integrating recycled water, cover cropping, managing for flooding, agrivoltaics, seed saving, and rainwater catchment.