Food Security and Adaptation to Climate Change: What Do We Know?

Abstract

The potential for agricultural systems to adapt to climate change is at once both promising and poorly understood. This chapter reviews possible producer and consumer responses to a changing climate, the ability of these responses to offset otherwise negative impacts on food security, and the role of public and private institutions in investing in adaptation where individual responses are insufficient. Accumulated evidence suggests that wealthier societies and households will be better able to adapt to a changing climate because of their greater availability of alternatives and their ability to take advantage of them. Accordingly, investments that improve options for the poor, such as improved agricultural production technologies, financial instruments, and off-farm income opportunities, will likely be critical for adapting food security to a changing climate.