The 6th IPCC report is published. What does it tell us about the future for family farmers in global drylands?

2°C of global warming will be exceeded during the 21st century, predicted the body of climate change experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in a much-anticipated report published on August 9th.

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land,” states the assessment, which warns of widespread, rapid, and intensifying climate change in all corners of the globe - some of it irreversible.

Small family farmers and dryland agroecosystems, which already grapple with harsh climatic impacts, are likely to be increasingly hit by rising temperatures, protracted droughts, sea-level rise, flashfloods, and wildfires, if radical policy changes are not implemented.

In a mini-Q&A series published this week and the next, we spoke to several ICARDA scientists to get a better sense of what the future of climate change might look like across the drylands, and to discover how ICARDA is supporting dryland smallholders to adapt.

 

FIND OUT WHAT OUR SCIENTISTS SAY: