Climate change and food security: risks and responses

Specific policies and instruments will be 
needed to enable those investments and facilitate the transition.

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CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY: RISKS AND RESPONSES
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Gender-specific support services are needed
, recognizing the differentiated roles of 
household members in production, consumption and the reproduction of the family unit over 
time. Government intervention is important to bridge gaps in economic and political power 
that can exist between smallholders and family farmers, their organizations and other food 
chain actors in accessing adaptation support, institutions and finance. 
Market development and better linkages of smallholder and family farmers to domestic, 
national and regional markets
are important to support adaptation actions, to enable food 
producers to get the inputs needed to adapt, and to sell new products from a diversification of 
activities. Developing these market linkages also requires investment in small- and medium-
size food processors, and small-scale traders at the retail and wholesale levels. 
Policies will be needed to reduce financial risks
, especially those related to price volatility, which 
is a major disincentive for smallholder and family farmers investment. Policies will also be needed 
to lower transaction costs, facilitate monetary transactions, enable access to financial services and 
facilitate long-term investments, such as safe savings deposits (with incentives to save), low-priced 
credit (such as through joint-liability group lending) and insurance (such as index-based weather 
insurance). Smallholder and family farmers’ financial needs for both working capital expenditures 
(fertilizers, seeds) and medium- and long-term investments, have to be addressed and supported.
The agriculture sectors are the most impacted by climate change of all economic sectors with, 
as this report shows, a range of food security implications. This calls for