December 8, 2025
Adapting your farm to climate change is a daunting endeavor, but you don’t have to do it alone. This February, NOFA-VT is launching a new adaptation planning program bringing farmers from across the NEK together to collaboratively develop adaptation plans that strengthen farm climate resilience. This program combines NOFA’s existing adaptation planning framework with a farmer cohort model to support farms in developing actionable, farm-specific adaptation plans, while also creating a space where you can learn from peers, deepen community connections, and build the skills to support lasting resilience across the NEK. Participants also receive a $5,000 implementation grant* to jumpstart one of their priority projects.
Program Details
Adaptation Planning Process
The adaptation planning process utilized in this program includes three steps: prework, risk assessment, and action planning.
During the prework phase, farmers identify holistic goals, reflect on the farm’s history, and assess their business’s current financial and environmental health. This prework is used as the foundation of adaptation planning.
The risk assessment phase comprises of a farm visit where technical service providers and the farmer walk the landscape to identify potential climate vulnerability considering soil, water, markets, supply chain, and infrastructure. After the visit, the planners draft a risk assessment document systematizing the risk areas identified during the farm visit.
During action planning phase, the farmers and planners identify and prioritize strategies to mitigate the risks identified. The result is an implementation plan consisting of short-term and long-term strategies that the farm can use to improve their climate resilience.
Climate adaptation planning is an iterative process and farmers are encouraged to evaluate the impact of their adaptation projects and continue to update their climate adaptation plan regularly.
Cohort Model
This pilot program will bring farmers together into a cohort who will learn together as a community over the course of spring 2026. The cohort will meet as a group for four roughly monthly in person meetings that support the planning process. At these meetings, the cohort will learn about climate change, explore approaches to climate adaptation as a group, and explore available resources to support their action plans. As the program progresses, the full cohort will be split into smaller groups of 3-4 farms who will visit one another's farms and collectively support one another through the adaptation process.
This cohort model is intentionally designed to allow for effective planning, while also creating valuable spaces for farmer-to-farmer learning and community connection.
Activity Schedule
The program launches late February 2026 and over the following four months, farmers will work through the adaptation planning process following this schedule:
Upon completion of the program, farms will receive $5,000 implementation grants* to fund the resilience enhancing projects identified through the planning program. These grants can be used individually or combined with those of others in the program to support bigger collaborative projects.
Following the program, NOFA-VT is available to link you and your newly developed implementation plan with additional resources to support your farm resilience initiatives. This may include: financial analysis, assistance accessing capital, and conservation/organic practice implementation resources with the goal of increasing both climate resilience and profitability.
Program Expectations
Through this program, NOFA-VT will:
- Create a respectful and effective community learning environment.
- Host four in-person gatherings that support the group’s shared learning, including a shared meal at each.
- Facilitate effective and efficient farm visits to support the adaptation planning process.
- Work with each farmer to develop accurate risk assessments.
- Co-create finalized adaptation action plans that meet the direct needs and goals of each farmer participating in the program.
- Provide $5,000 implementation grants* to participating farms at the completion of the program.
Participating farms are expected to:
- Participate fully in the program from February 23 through the end of May 2026, including four in-person meetings and approximately three farm visits. The estimated time commitment is approximately 16 hours (not including travel time).
- Complete the necessary prework before the March in-person meeting.
- Attend two Zoom meetings to review risk assessment and action plan drafts.
- Actively support your fellow cohort members by sharing your ideas, energy, and knowledge during group meetings and farm visits.
- Respond to communications related to the program.
- Participate in the program evaluation process.
* Farms that have recently received $1500 grants from NOFA for adaptation planning can participate, but will receive $3500 through this program.
Interested in Participating?
This program is designed to be most valuable for farmers who are interested in active farmer-to-farmer learning, able to commit fully to the full process, and excited to explore strengthening climate resilience in community.
If this sounds like you, please complete this interest questionnaire by January 16th to be considered.
Farms are welcome to apply on their own or in groups of up to 3-4. So, if you have neighbors or friends that you’d be excited to plan with, share this with them and consider applying as a mini-cohort. If participating individually, NOFA-VT will pair you with other similar farms to create the mini-cohorts that will visit each other's farms and support each other through the process.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to NOFA-VT’s Organic Practices Team: Nancy LaRowe ([email protected]) or Kevin Haggerty ([email protected]).
Looking forward to seeing you in February!