ABSTRACT
Climate-related risks and opportunities play a prominent role in agricultural development, but are not always recognized in sector programming and investment planning. Climate change is now affecting crop productivity and the ability of farmers to harvest and process agricultural produce, with direct impacts on the nearly 70% of people in developing countries living in rural areas where agriculture is the main livelihood (Vermeulen, Campbell, & Ingram, 2012). In many rural areas, episodes of extreme weather interrupt access to markets, while restricted livelihood options and insufficiently diversified energy systems perpetuate the degradation of those ecosystems which are needed more than ever as natural buffers against floods, landslides and soil erosion. Climate-related disasters can disrupt social networks and wipe out years of financial savings, rolling back decades of development progress (Carter, Little, Mogues, & Negatu, 2007). Climate change materializes predominantly as a threat multiplier for poor rural households, adding new dimensions to the portfolio
of risks, opportunities and longer term trends facing people whose livelihoods depend on agriculture.
