Feeding the future: risks, resilience, and adaptation pathways in farming systems

Summary

This thesis presents an interdisciplinary analysis of resilience and adaptability of global farming systems, focusing on the weather risks under changing climatic conditions. It examines the alignment of global climate action with agricultural adaptation needs. Further, it presents a comprehensive review and synthesis of agricultural insurance practices globally, exploring agricultural insurance's role in resilience strategies. It also examines the impacts of heat stress under climate-smart agriculture practices, revealing the crucial role of traditional practices like irrigation, despite their potential unsustainability. Lastly, it presents a global resilience analysis of recovery from production shocks in maize and livestock farming systems. The findings highlight risk hotspots, evaluate the resilience of different adaptations and farming systems, and suggest policy pathways in different geographies for sustainable agricultural development with projected climate change impacts.