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Climate-Resilient Agricultural Development in the Global South

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The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies

Abstract

Global warming is already having a profound effect on food production around the world and in the global south in particular. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, SDG2, on zero hunger calls for sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, while helping maintain ecosystems, and that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding, and other natural disasters. It has been estimated that smallholder farmers provide up to 75% of the food supply in many developing countries. The success of efforts to develop rural economies, ensure food and nutrition security, and eradicate rural poverty will depend on building resilience to climate change in agricultural systems managed by smallholders and the widespread adoption of innovations in farming practices. However, although there are many “islands” of climate-resilient agriculture practiced in the global south, what has been lacking to date has been change at scale. Recently, there has been an increasing recognition that agriculture is part and parcel of wider food systems. Building resilience in the primary agriculture sector to climate change through technological interventions at the farm level, though necessary, is insufficient in itself for sustainability. For this, there is a need to broaden the perspective to include food systems as a whole.

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  1. International Rice Research Institute, South Asia Regional Office, New Delhi, India

    Nafees Meah & Sheetal Sharma

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Meah, N., Sharma, S. (2021). Climate-Resilient Agricultural Development in the Global South. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32811-5_19-1

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