Adaptation Fund for Smallholder Agriculture: Enabling Developing Countries to Survive Climate Change
AFA Issue Paper, Volume 3, Number 2, December 2011
DOWNLOAD: Adaptation Fund for Smallholder Agriculture: Enabling Developing Countries to Survive Climate Change
Sumalee’s tears welled up as she watched the flood wash away the crops that she had been carefully tending only a few days ago. The rains
had come so unexpectedly and so strongly that there was no time to save any of the grains from the field. She was not able to save even a handful of vegetables from the tiny garden in her backyard. Already, she was worrying how she can feed her family now that the floods swept away almost everything that she had planted. Worse, she did not know how she could pay back the loan that she got from the village trader to buy the seeds and other inputs for her crops. Her only consolation was that at least she and her family were safe despite
the heavy floods. She knew that others were not as lucky. A week earlier, at least 600 people died because of the heavy rains in the southern part of Thailand.
Sumalee’s case is not an isolated one. All over Asia, small women and men farmers are experiencing extreme and intense weather events
brought about by climate change. Almost all of them are caught unprepared by changing climate patterns: rains are heavier, storms and floods occur more often, dry seasons are more intense and last longer. They do not understand why this is happening. All they know is that they have to find a way to adapt to and survive these changes.
In this issue paper, we will look at how farmers are adapting, and can better adapt, to the negative impacts of climate change. We will look at the resources, including climate finance, and policies necessary to help poor farmers and communities cope with changing climate patterns.
Many of the discussions on climate adaptation are happening in countries where governments are formulating and preparing for the implementation of their respective national adaptation plans. At the global level, discussions on climate finance and adaptation take place in the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC). This issue paper will provide an overview of developments related to climate adaptation and climate finance both at the national and international levels.
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