Agriculture

Agriculture is the primary livelihood for millions of people around the world, and provides food for millions more. Agriculture is also particularly vulnerable to changes in weather patterns and extreme climatic events. Droughts, floods, and increasingly unpredictable rainfall disrupt agriculture and livestock production, deeply impacting the food security and nutrition of households and communities.

Strengthening farmers’ and pastoralists’ ability to produce, sell, and distribute food is therefore essential to community food security and nutrition. Access to quality inputs, training, and markets, coupled with opportunities to diversify outside of and between crop production and animal rearing, can make households more resilient and better able to feed themselves and their communities even in the face of shocks and stresses.

Climate smart agriculture builds resilience to the shocks and stresses of climate change through climate-appropriate practices while reducing agriculture’s contributions to climate change. Farmers need access to and investment in appropriate climate-smart technologies and practices that increase productivity, build farmers’ resilience to climate change, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.