Climate change is a leading driver of hunger. Global warming is affecting weather patterns and causing weather events - from droughts and flooding to hurricanes and cyclones – to occur more frequently and with greater intensity.
The impact on food security is significant: reduced crop and livestock productivity, lower nutrient content in staple crops, increased prevalence of foodborne pathogens and an acceleration of food spoilage. This has a significant impact on low- and middle-income countries where agriculture is often the backbone of their economies.
Under the aegis of the Hesat2030 initiative, the Juno Evidence Alliance and the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate, have launched a new project to identify the most promising agricultural interventions to enhance climate resilience and food security in low- and middle-income countries. Researchers from MIT’s FACT Alliance and the University of Aberdeen are also participating in this work.
Understanding the new project
Despite extensive scientific literature exploring solutions to enhance food security and resilience to climate change, an integrated focus on these two topics is lacking. Yet, research into the intersections of climate change and food security is crucial. Policy-makers can use this research as a foundation on which to build effective adaptation and mitigation strategies.
To bridge this gap, this new Hesat2030 initiative will compile and assess existing evidence to identify patterns, gaps, and synergies in agricultural interventions that enhance climate resilience and food security. It will use rigorous evidence synthesis methods to systematically collate, appraise and synthesise dispersed data from peer-reviewed and grey literature.
Integrating a causal pathway
As a first step, researchers identified seven key interventions that have significant, albeit varying, impacts on climate resilience and food security in the agricultural systems of low- and middle-income countries:
Agroforestry
Post-harvest Management and Storage
Crop Diversification
Improved Water Management
Soil Conservation
Market Access and Value Chain Development, and Financial Services
Access to Climate Information and Extension Services
By breaking down complex relationships into interconnected steps, the causal pathway provides a clearer understanding of how specific interventions contribute to resilience and food security within vulnerable food systems. This approach identifies potential synergies and trade-offs among interventions, thus promotes a holistic understanding of their cumulative impacts.
Next steps
Research findings, including a systematic map of evidence and policy recommendations, are expected to be published in September 2025, with the aim of supporting evidence-based decision-making.