Developing Inclusive Market Systems-Based Approaches to Climate Change Adaptation

 Agricultural market systems are transforming because of climate change. In India, apples are moving upslope and pomegranates are being grown instead. In Central America, coffee is moving up and out and being replaced by cacao and citrus. In Bangladesh, farmers have switched from rice to aquaculture. Farmers and agribusiness have made these adaptations on their own as their principal traditional crops become less viable due to precipitation and temperature changes, shifts in pest and disease prevalence, and changes in water availability.

Although each transformation is unique, they occur in places where there are adequate market systems and institutional capacity to enable them to adapt. These examples offer critical insights into what farmers, communities, the private sector, and governments need to do to make agriculture and food systems climate-resilient. They also stand in contrast to the places where this capacity is lacking and where the failure of agricultural and food systems can have more significant consequences: food crises, out migration, and violent conflict.

Over the last three years, I have worked with colleagues at the World Resources Institute to look at how policymakers can accelerate transformative climate change adaptation approaches in agriculture.  As climate change accelerates, the viability of crop and livestock production systems in some areas will diminish. To build climate resilience, new crops will have to be introduced, production moved to more suitable areas, and production systems changed fundamentally. These changes are challenging, especially for the most vulnerable populations.

In case studies from India, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Costa Rica, we found several common elements:

• Farmers were sophisticated and had the resources to introduce new crops and production systems.

• Value chains and market linkages were leveraged to make new crops successful. For example, storage, transport, and packaging for apples could be easily adapted to pomegranates.

• The private sector actors, including farmers, had adequate access to finance to enable the change.

• Public investment in extension, research, and development was sufficient to support transformations.

In other words, each of these places had adequate adaptation capacity within the market system to respond to the challenges climate change posed to their agricultural systems. However, there are also many places where the most vulnerable households face severe adaptation deficits and do not have adequate capacities to manage and thrive given the current climate risks. We found that adaptation deficits are systemic and institutional. For example, without the research capacity to identify what alternative crops will thrive in a changed climate, the extension capacity to support farmers to switch crops, the value chain finance to support the switch, and the marketing capacity to store, transport and sell new crops, transformative adaptation isn’t possible. 

Inclusive market systems approaches offer a critical tool for overcoming systemic and institutional adaptation deficits. Better integrating climate change impact and options analysis into the market systems development process is a start. Better analysis can help market actors and policymakers envision a more climate-resilient, inclusive, and sustainable market. Better analysis can also inform real investments in the capacities needed in the public and private sector to support locally driven, market-based adaptation pathways that promote inclusion and equity.

Policymakers, researchers, and funders can take steps to accelerate transformative adaptation action. In June 2021, the World Resources Institute published their solutions in a research article titled: Food Systems at Risk: Why Transformative Adaptation is Needed for Long-Term Food Security. The article provides specific recommendations on actions stakeholders can take  to make our food system climate resilient. Some of the most important recommendations include: the need to support the development of policy and planning tools that allow governments, businesses, and communities to better integrate transformative adaptation pathways into their policies and plans, supporting inclusion, equity and sustainability. 

For more information:

• Food Systems at Risk: Why Transformative Adaptation is Needed for Long-Term Food Security (Online Event: June 23, 2021: 9:00-10:30am EDT)

• Food Systems at Risk: Transformative Adaptation for Long-Term Food Security (Report)