Climate change poses daunting challenges to agricultural production and food security. Rising temperatures, shifting weather patterns, and more frequent extreme events have already demonstrated their effects on local, regional, and global agricultural systems. Crop varieties that withstand climate-related stresses and are suitable for cultivation in innovative cropping systems will be crucial to maximize risk avoidance, productivity, and profitability under climate-changed environments.

Bangladesh is the 7th most climate vulnerable country, and the impacts of this are largely shaped by water-related challenges in this deltaic country. The gendered dimensions of these challenges are poorly understood and addressed in technical interventions designed to mitigate and enable adaptation to climate impacts. A focus on gender (read women) is often limited to WASH interventions, or at best extends to women’s representation in irrigation water user associations.

Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE) is using a Collect Earth Online through a service co-developed with EcoCiencia and SERVIR-Amazonia (an Alliance – led regional program) to improve forest monitoring data accuracy in the Ecuadorian Amazon and to validate National Monitoring System maps and land cover estimates. MAATE continues to improve the monitoring of forest degradation and to support the provinces and indigenous forest- dependent groups to use the data for decision making.

Biophysical models are key to inform management activities that can restore degraded soils and ultimately improve biomass production and soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. Within East Africa several studies have been conducted to evaluate models in annual cropping systems, and to quantify the impacts of different agronomic management options on soil organic carbon and yields. However, no modelling studies exist on perennial forage grasses, which are important for mixed-crop livestock systems within the region.

In India, the production of rice and wheat account for more than 80% of its total agricultural water use. As farming is highly dependent on water availability, rapidly receding water levels require urgent measures to manage withdrawals. We assess policy instruments that can reduce pressures on water resources, while at the same time limiting adverse impacts on water-intensive cereal production systems, land-use changes and economic welfare.

Oral presentation on “Sociotechnical innovations for leveraging systems transformation, water management and food security under climate change: concepts and illustrations in the dry areas” – delivered on September 12th. This communication occurred during the 6th General Assembly of the IOFS in Tunis, Tunisia, as part of the Regional Conference on Resilient Agriculture in IOFS Member States, focusing on Climate Adaptation and Food Security (28 August 2023 / 04-12-13 September 2023).