Climate Change & Agriculture: A Double Bind for Food Systems

Climate change poses a significant challenge to agriculture worldwide, threatening global food security and exacerbating existing vulnerabilities. As temperatures rise, extreme weather events become more frequent and precipitation patterns change, the agriculture sector faces unprecedented risks. It is, however, a double-edged sword: Agriculture affects the climate and is affected by it at the same time. 

In fact, the sector is one of the biggest drivers of climate change: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), food systems, including production, processing, transportation and consumption account for up to 37 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. 

The multidimensional relationship between climate change and agriculture presents a significant challenge. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms pose substantial risks to crop production, livestock health and overall productivity. Additionally, changing rainfall patterns challenge the delicate balance necessary for optimal plant growth and development. 

According to the World Bank, about 80 percent of the global population most at risk from crop failures and hunger from climate change live in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, where farming families are disproportionately poor and vulnerable. Without solutions, falling crop yields, especially in the world’s most food-insecure regions, will push more people into poverty – an estimated 45 million people in Africa alone could fall below the poverty line in 2030 as a result. 

Solution: investing in adaptation and mitigation 

Ensuring agricultural resilience is a key priority to solve this dilemma. This is why it is imperative to invest in adaptation and mitigation practices. Adaptation practices focus on enhancing agricultural systems’ resilience to climate-related challenges. On the other hand, mitigation aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Resilience building in agriculture refers to the capacity of farming systems to withstand and recover from shocks and stresses, including those induced by climate change. It involves equipping farmers with the knowledge, resources and tools necessary to adapt to changing conditions, minimize risks and sustainably manage their activities. 

Take the example of Honduras: Agriculture plays a crucial role in the economy, contributing significantly to employment, rural livelihoods and food security. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), about 28 percent of the country is agricultural land and the agriculture sector employs about 39 percent of the population. The sector predominantly consists of smallholder farmers who rely on subsistence farming and the cultivation of cash crops like coffee, bananas and palm oil for export. Today, Honduras faces considerable challenges due to climate change and its agriculture sector is exposed to significant risks. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes and droughts and unpredictable rain patterns negatively impact crop yields, leading to reduced productivity and income stability for farmers. 

The PROINORTE project, which the OPEC Fund is co-financing together with IFAD and the government of Honduras, targets some of these challenges in the northeastern region of the country, an area characterized by high poverty and food insecurity. The project aims to enhance incomes and living conditions for some 70,000 people in rural communities and boost livelihoods for women and youth. Around 90 producer organizations will be supported to enhance their organizational and business capacities to increase access to market value chains and optimize primary production, transformation and commercialization models. 

Investing in research 

By providing the evidence base necessary to design effective adaptation and mitigation strategies, research plays a pivotal role in addressing the complex challenges posed by climate change in the agriculture sector. Recognizing the importance of research, the OPEC Fund has long supported initiatives that foster innovation in agriculture. 

In 2018, the OPEC Fund provided a US$200,000 research grant to the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) for a project dedicated to the promotion of efficient and nutritious agri-food systems in South Asia. The goal was to enhance the productivity, profitability, resilience and marketability of micronutrientrich food legumes such as lentil, chickpea, faba beans and grass pea by incorporating energy and labor-saving traits into the agricultural practices of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal. 

Aly Abousabaa, ICARDA Director General, explains how research can help increase productivity and resilience: “The focus of our research programs is on helping countries to develop technologies that will help them to produce sufficient quantities of food that is nutritious and affordable. In many parts of the world we expect to see rising temperatures, reduced rainfall and, more critically, shifts in the growing seasons, which make it difficult for farmers to decide when to plant and what to plant.” 

With the shifting in seasons, Mr. Abousabaa says farmers are going to see new forms of pests and diseases that did not exist in the past. Therefore, the technologies that were available and most suited to help will gradually become dated. This is why research matters. ICARDA is trying to deploy research capacity in Asia, bringing in the international dimension, sharing solutions and providing genetic diversity in its gene banks. Through national programs the institution joins research programs to help countries develop the crops for the future. In Asia, where the OPEC Fund financed research, most of the work has focused on lentil, grasspea, barley and chickpea. 

Abousabaa says: “We view resilience from different angles. One part of it is to make sure that the crops will not fail, or in case of severe weather events that the drop in productivity is within reasonable limits so that farmers can still have a decent crop. We try to bring in the varieties that are known to perform well under high temperatures and extended drought conditions, or those that are able to still produce sufficient quantities even under rising temperatures and are resilient to pests and disease. The other dimension is the resilience of the livelihood of the people living in dry areas. We help them produce more food using the land that they have. In India, we used technologies of breeding and material from the gene bank and generated a new lentil variety that matures and gives a full crop within 60 days instead of 90. It’s a transformational impact.” 

OPEC Fund’s Food Security Action 

In June 2022, the OPEC Fund launched its US$1 billion Food Security Action Plan with projects in Jordan and Paraguay. Channeling public and private sector loans as well as grants, the facility is helping developing countries that were hit by supply and trade disruptions following the war in Ukraine, which pushed up food and fertilizer prices worldwide. The action plan is providing immediate assistance to cover the import costs of basic commodities such as seeds, grains and fertilizers, while supporting the medium- and long-term security of food supply in partner countries. It is by building up the resilience of agriculture sectors and strengthening regional food value chains – all to future-proof against global shocks. 

Addressing global food insecurity and protecting the most vulnerable and affected populations has always been a priority for the OPEC Fund. Since its establishment in 1976, the Fund has committed US$2.6 billion to agriculture projects, representing more than 10 percent of its total operations. The OPEC Fund has specifically targeted investments in rural infrastructure, development of production and storage facilities, trade in agricultural goods as well as training, capacity and institution building. 

Zimbabwe – Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project (SACP) To help improve food security in Zimbabwe, the OPEC Fund approved a US$15 million loan in support of the Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project under its Food Security Action Plan. Co-financed with IFAD and private sector partners, the program will help transform small-scale farming and increase farmers’ participation in market-oriented and climate-smart value chains. 

Côte d’lvoire – “2PAI-Nord” Project Even though Côte d’lvoire is the world’s leading producer of cocoa and a major exporter of raw cashew nuts, the processing of agricultural products remains negligible and the country depends on agricultural imports rather than realizing its tremendous potential. The “2PAI-Nord” project is designed to demonstrate that alternative approaches are possible – and viable. Financed jointly by the OPEC Fund and the African Development Bank, the project aims to increase private investment, particularly in processing agricultural products like rice, meat and fish, cashews, mango and shea, and facilitate farmers’ access to markets. 

The Icarda Gene Bank 

Agro-biodiversity supports the livelihoods of millions of people living in rural communities around the world. It is critical to protect genetic resources for global food security and stability amid the challenges presented by climate change, diminishing natural resources and a rapidly growing population. ICARDA’s gene bank system works alongside global networks to collect, conserve and develop vital genetic resources to protect agro-biodiversity in dry regions. ICARDA manages a gene bank network containing some 157,000 samples of landraces and wild relative species of major dryland cereals, food legumes, forage and rangeland species.