Climate change and food security: risks and responses

Increasing the diversity within production systems
will help spread risks. This can take 
many forms: combining different types of production (crop, forest, fish and livestock) in 
different ways; increasing the numbers of different species, populations, varieties or breeds; 
increasing the use of materials that are themselves genetically diverse such as crop multilines.
Adaptation action can be conducted at landscape level
, for instance watershed protection 
and management, fire management, erosion control, coastal zone management, and pest 
and disease control. Adopting a landscape approach to management includes taking into 
consideration the physical and biological features of an area as well as the institutions and 
people who influence it. Landscape-level adaptation will require appropriate institutions and 
policies to improve coping capacities of communities.
Invest in resilient agricultural development
Resilient agricultural development, and related investment, can support adaptation
. 
Farmers, fisherfolk and forest dwellers need support from governments and from the private 
sector, and there is also an important role for civil society organizations. 
Investments in agriculture, and especially in smallholder agriculture, are key to 
eradicating poverty
. As shown by the World Bank, growth in agricultural GDP from 
investments in agriculture is three times more effective than growth in any other sector for 
reducing poverty in countries highly dependent on agriculture. As shown by the High Level 
Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, agricultural development strategies should 
put smallholder and family farming at the centre. Such strategies, emphasizing access to 
markets and value addition shall also be part of broader rural development.
Rural and R&D investments
needed to eradicate hunger could, to take into account climate 
change effects, be reoriented or complemented by additional investments and appropriate 
measures. Climate change adaptation investment could be joined-up with regular agricultural 

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Summary
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investment programmes to scale-up effects. Public investment can help guide, enable and increase 
returns to private investments, such as for instance public investment in research, support to 
water management facilities and user associations, land restoration and extension services.