Today I really want to continue with our series on how countries are adapting to Climate Change. I have literally been reading about this since November, so here are just a few insights as to what countries are doing. Just follow the links if you want to learn more. The FAO's Open Knowledge site is particularly good. I shall split this into two parts so that it isn't unbearably long. The first part is about some innovations and the second will be how governments are supporting farmers to adapt to the various challenges which Climate Change poses.
The Importance of Food Security
The most basic things which humans need to exist are food and water. History shows that scarcity of either has toppled great civilisations. The French Revolution of 1789 was of course one of the most famous examples, having been sparked by a series of poor harvests, food shortages, and soaring prices. It's true that there were various social grievances such as excessive taxation which preceded it, but it was hunger which finally lit the match.
Similarly, the European Peasant Wars of 1524–25 and the Great Irish Potato Famine (1849–1852) -exacerbated by Ireland’s colonial status and dependence on a single crop, led to starvation and generated revolutionary fervour in other parts of Europe as well. In Ireland’s case, the migrations which started with the famine continued long after, leading to the population falling from around 8 million to 4 million within a few years and the countryside never recovering.
More recently food insecurity played a role in the 2022 Sri Lankan uprising and the Arab Spring, where poor harvests and rising food prices intensified social unrest.
Given this history, ensuring food security should be a high priority, especially in those countries already facing precarious conditions. The World Food Programme’s Global Report on Food Crises highlights the urgency of this issue worldwide.
How Climate Change Threatens Food Security
A 2025 Stanford report reveals that many regions are already experiencing hotter, drier growing seasons, reducing yields of major crops by 4 to 13%. Climate models, now highly accurate, warn of increasingly frequent “once-in-a-century” global harvest failures. Historically these only occurred around once every 100 years but at 1.2°C of warming they are now occurring every 25–30 years. That figure is projected to fall to once every 5–10 years if warming reaches 2°C. This trend threatens to disrupt global food supplies, particularly if regional droughts become simultaneous and less likely to be offset by imports from unaffected areas.
Shrinking and Shifting Croplands
At 2°C warming, the world could lose up to half of its current cropland. While warming might open some northern lands for farming, thawing permafrost causes land collapse, soil instability, and ecological disruption, making these areas unsuitable replacements. Additionally, climate change disrupts pollinator timing and spreads new plant and animal diseases, compounding agricultural challenges.
Action, not Alarm
Despite some efforts to silence climate warnings, many countries are actively working to reduce emissions, stop land clearing, and restore ecosystems. Water conservation is a key focus -repairing leaks, mulching soil, shading crops to reduce evaporation, restoring rivers to natural courses so that more water stays in the system, capturing storm and flood water and revitalising wetlands to retain moisture and to filter and recharge groundwater. Water reuse and restrictions during shortages are increasingly common. Beyond these familiar measures, some countries are innovating in unique ways.
Drought - Proofing
A Bit of History
Did you know that the first rain gauges and river level indicators were devised by King Sejong of South Korea in the C15th? Although King Sejong is best known for giving Koreans their written language, he was also the country’s first water manager. In Europe the C14th is generally regarded as the beginning of the Little Ice Age in Europe and it may well be that King Sejong was responding to the early signs of the climatic instability which had rocked Europe.
His rain gauges enabled farmers and officials to better plan their plantings and for their water needs. He insisted on households capturing rainwater from their roofs and established a series of small local reservoirs, especially in the driest regions. These enabled farmers to improve yields and survive droughts. Some of these community owned reservoirs can still be seen at Ui Seong.
These days King Sejong’s ideas are carried forward in modern office buildings and apartment blocks such as those in Star City. In the basement of its 1300 apartments are three enormous tanks – one for capturing rainwater from roofs, one for general use in landscaping, cooling and flushing, and one full tank for emergencies such as fires. These also play a role in flood mitigation so that the stormwater system isn’t overwhelmed by a sudden heavy downpour. Many of his ideas can also be applied to agriculture. Below are some ways in which modern farmers are doing just that.
Harnessing Flood Waters
Swales, Check Dams and Ponds
Australia’s Millenium Drought (1996 – 2010) the longest dry spell since records began, was a big wake -up call for Australian farmers who have been rethinking how to satisfy their water needs during dry periods and also how to deal with floods which are now also becoming more frequent. Click here for a short video (10 m) about harnessing water on farms which includes capturing more water from roofs, using swales - shallow continuous depressions, to retain more water on the land and how to deal with flood waters and stop rapid run -off during rains to prevent erosion and loss of nutrients.
The second video is from Canada and elaborates a bit more on swales and how shading your water sources helps to prevent excess evaporation. There’s an interesting section in this video about how Saudi Arabia is using these principles to green the desert.
The last video is from the USA and demonstrates 7 ways in which water can be captured and retained as well as a bit about Regenerative Agriculture which revitalises the soils and also helps to retain moisture and reduce the need for external inputs.
Interestingly, the same principle underlies a low -cost traditional technique from West Africa which also suffers from long dry spells followed by short bursts of intense rainfall. It has now been widely adopted in other arid regions. By creating half moons and filling them with organic material, what little rain there is, is captured and can be used for growing crops. It has greatly increased the range of crops which can be grown and has also been used extensively to restore degraded rangelands. Even just restoring the landscape increases soil moisture and groundwater recharge.
Changing Crops: Drawing on Heritage and Innovation
Koreans and Africans aren’t alone in looking to their agricultural past. In Mexico, efforts are underway to revive heritage corn varieties that may be more resilient in response to climate variability and may help to help avoid the catastrophic failures caused by reliance on a narrow range of crops, as seen during the Great Potato Famine.
In Australia, researchers are experimenting with native grasses that may be better suited for grazing under reduced water availability compared to traditional European pasture varieties. The country is also exploring drought-tolerant crops and soil-crop systems designed for low-water conditions as part of a broader effort to build agricultural resilience in a drying climate.
Farmers are adapting by de -stocking and diversifying their operations. Government-supported programs like the Future Drought Fund’s drought resilience scholarships feature farmers discussing diversification, risk management, and climate adaptation strategies, including shifting to crops and systems suited for water-limited futures
An important part of this knowledge-sharing comes from industry associations such as Meat & Livestock Australia, which provides sustainability resources and videos as well as farmer peer to peer groups sharing best practices.
Water ‘Banking’ -MAR – Managed Aquifer Recharge Schemes
MAR – Managed Aquifer Recharge is already used in over 50 countries, but only sparingly in Australia. This looks set to change as our scientific research organisation, the CSIRO, begins looking at suitable locations, feasibility and costs. The aim is to to store excess water underground in good seasons. Several potential sites have already been identified and costs are at least likely to be far lower than having to buy water to save crops or towns. Major advantages include no loss from evaporation, no mosquitoes and no algae. The water itself can come from different sources -rainwater, rivers, overflow from dams, recycled wastewater and even stormwater, to provide insurance for those not so rainy days.
Agroforestry
Agroforestry – the interplanting of trees with crops is another ancient idea which is making a huge comeback. Click here for a brief rundown by DW on the principles. In this video trees provide a windbreak, habitat for beneficial insects and improve the soil as well as reducing the cost of feed in the case of the chickens. In other situations, the growing plants also benefit directly from the shade and cooling effects of the trees. See for example how it’s being done in France and Nigeria (below).
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| Intercropping Rubber with Vegetables in Nigeria |
- Image courtesy of World Agroforestry per Flickr BY CC BY-SA 2.0
Precision Farming and Agricultural Technology
Precision farming and AgTech have become widely adopted across Australia. A 2024 survey found that over 70% of farmers actively use agricultural technologies—from satellite data and precision farming systems to drones and remote sensors. Many report significant benefits in targeted water management, input reduction, and productivity. Satellite and sensor technologies alone are used on around two-thirds of broadacre farms, with adoption of soil and environmental sensors expected to grow as data-driven irrigation and input management become mainstream.
Changing Our Diets for Resilience and Sustainability
In the interests of greater resilience and self-sufficiency, the UK is encouraging farmers to grow more pulses and legumes. These crops provide a valuable source of protein, require less space than livestock, improve soil health, and reduce emissions, inputs, and imports. The UK is also encouraging eating of more legumes and pulses, for health reasons as well as sustainability.
Overcoming Space Limitations
Vertical Farming
Beyond climate change, population growth will further strain arable land availability. China has done extensive research into maximising yields on limited arable land through vertical farming. This method, combined with optimised growing conditions, can produce large quantities of food in much shorter periods, independent of seasons, temperature fluctuations, floods, or other disasters. Vertical farms also use very little water, making them highly efficient. Singapore and countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are also investing keenly in this technology.
Although vertical farming holds great promise, it is not yet commercially viable. With high startup and maintenance costs the end product can't compete against conventionally grown produce. However, with rising costs for land, labour and transport, it represents an option whose time may come. One major barrier particularly in the USA and Europe, has been the high cost of electricity, which has made many ventures unprofitable despite some 2,000 startups worldwide as of 2023.
Sir James Dyson, better known for his innovative vacuum cleaners, appears to have overcome this challenge by using biogas made from farm waste from his open field operations to run his vertical farm. As may be expected, he has also been able to overcome the need for much of the expensive specialised labour required with clever engineering.
Sea Gardens, Aquaponics
- Indigenous
communities have long used intertidal flats for shellfish production. Industrial
aquaculture in China now produces over 60 million tonnes of seafood
annually in this manner which helps to feed its large urban populations.
- Aquaponics which combines fish farming with hydroponics (soil-less plant cultivation),
creates a closed-loop system which recycles nutrients and uses much less
water. This method is expanding in Singapore, the Netherlands, and parts
of Africa. Singapore has scaled
rooftop aquaponics farms, while African countries see it as a promising
solution for food insecurity and water scarcity.
- In flood-prone Bangladesh, farmers use floating gardens (baira or dhap) made from rafts of water hyacinth and reeds to grow vegetables during floods. Similar systems exist in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and parts of India’s floodplains, offering a low-tech, community-driven method to maintain food production despite seasonal flooding.
Urban Farming: Greening Cities and Enhancing Food Security
French supermarket chain Carrefour has established rooftop gardens on its stores as part of Paris’ urban agriculture initiatives, which also include vertical gardening. These projects not only contribute to food security but help cool cities and buildings and reduce pollution and emissions. The food produced in this way would most certainly be fresh! Paris now hosts 78 such projects and some include onsite restaurants. The urban farming movement is global, with cities such as Delhi and Tamil Nadu in India, New York and Philadelphia in the USA, and locations in Canada embracing similar initiatives.
To be Con'td..... Stopping here for tonight. Next time: How Governments are supporting farmers
Thank you to Copilot for the illustration and help with facts and figures, also some references. ChatGTP has also been helpful as has Ecosia. I like using Ecosia because it uses renewable energy which takes away some of my guilt for using these energy intensive systems. It is also better informed on issues beyond the Anglosphere.
All three AIs keep offering to refine my prose etc. Sometimes I like it, but then it sounds so generic e.g. " 8 ways to Beat Drought" or similar. On the other hand, people are time poor and maybe that's what they would prefer. Let me know in the comments if you would prefer not have the history etc and just the facts, ma'm, or as it is, complete with random thoughts, digressions and wild generalisations.
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Little Footnote: As huge fires burn in Victoria and Argentina - I've just been watching cattle being moved ahead of a fire front in Victoria's case on the news, I am reminded of a little snippet I saw somewhere - apologies, I don't remember where - that in distaser -prone areas, we should not only be setting up local foodbanks, but fodder banks.
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