Agricultural production systems are increasingly shaped by the effects of climate change, including shifts in rainfall patterns, shorter growing seasons, and the intensification of extreme weather events. Despite global efforts to mitigate climate change, these impacts are expected to persist and grow more severe.
Governments worldwide are taking steps to strengthen agricultural resilience through investments in infrastructure, policy development, and program implementation. However, these measures often focus on short-term shock recovery and medium-term incremental adaptations, leaving the critical need for transformative capacity largely overlooked.
Transformative adaptation is vital when existing systems become untenable, requiring fundamentally new agricultural systems. Yet, what constitutes transformation and how governments can foster systemic change remains unclear.
A recent report highlights the growing academic interest in transformative adaptation. This approach entails significant social, economic, and institutional changes, including updated governance frameworks, strengthened value chains, and the adoption of climate-sensitive strategies. Transformative measures also involve shifts in farming practices, such as new cultivation geographies and ecosystem-based approaches that promote agroecological principles and biodiversity enhancement.
Barriers to Transformation
Both individual and institutional barriers impede transformative adaptation. At the individual level, psychological distance from climate risks, resistance to change, social conformity, and resource limitations restrict bold action. Institutional challenges include entrenched policymaking that favors current production paradigms, regulatory uncertainty, and inconsistent research funding. Furthermore, policies that incentivize existing practices or shield farmers from risk can inadvertently stifle transformative innovation.
Policy Recommendations
The report proposes key strategies to support transformative adaptation in agriculture:
- Establish a Shared Vision: Develop a clear, collective vision for the future to guide scenario planning and raise awareness about the limitations of incremental solutions.
- Enhance Climate Modelling Capacity: Expand resources and data to support foresight exercises, enabling planning for diverse future scenarios.
- Encourage Innovative Policymaking: Integrate diverse information sources and stakeholder input to foster unexpected and transformative solutions.
- Support Experimentation and Learning: Secure long-term funding for research and extension programs that facilitate adoption and feedback loops. Promote partnerships between research institutions and private entities to scale up innovations.
- Monitor Transformative Adaptation: Invest in systems to identify and assess transformative measures, ensuring they enhance resilience without leading to maladaptive outcomes.
