Climate change and food security: risks and responses

Investments of farmers, fishers and forest dwellers need to be supported
by increased 
capacity to take collective action, including for investments, and by strengthening the evidence 
base. For instance, mutualized systems to assess risks, vulnerabilities and adaptation options can 
help orient individual decisions and actions. Weather observations at stations and by satellites, 
weather forecasts, climate projections, yield response models, environmental monitoring tools 
and vulnerability assessments can help determine how local climate conditions will change 
in the future, and what will be their impact on production. Integrated packages of tools 
for facilitating an interdisciplinary assessment of impacts of climate change on agriculture 
are already available. They are key to ground the set-up of early warning systems and of 
adaptation option assessments. 
Managing genetic resources is another key means of adaptation
. This requires large 
collective investments to preserve, characterize and valorize genetic resources, and also to 
revise the goals of breeding programmes. Breeding programmes take time to attain their goals 
and therefore need to start many years in advance. In some places the introduction of new 
varieties and breeds is likely to be needed. Improvements to 
in-situ
and 
ex-situ
conservation 
programmes for domesticated species, their wild relatives and other wild genetic resources 
important for food and agriculture, along with policies that promote their sustainable use, are 
therefore urgently required.
Enable adaptation through policies and institutions
Appropriate policies and institutions at national and international levels are needed to 
enable, support and complement
the economic and technical options presented above, to 
enable adaptation of food producers, and especially to support small-scale food producers in 
their efforts to adapt to climate change.