Agriculture accounts for a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). And according to some projections, half of all farmland in Latin America may be affected by desertification by 2050. Agroecology is one way to improve resilience in the face of climate change and provide greater security for farmers facing changing climate patterns and extreme weather events in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A new “Didactic Toolkit for the Design, Management, and Assessment of Resilient Farming Systems” was recently released to address these issues in the region.
The toolkit is intended for conducting quick assessments of farmers’ vulnerability, initiating ecological practices to improve resiliency and reduce future risk, and monitoring farmers’ recovery after climatic events. The publication was a joint effort of SOCLA (Sociedad Científico Latinoamericana de Agroecología) and RedAgres, a scientific network of agroecologists working in the countries of the SOCLA network to promote knowledge exchange within the areas of agriculture and climate change. By analyzing the impact of climate change on food production in Central and South America, the network is helping to drive scientific approaches and help farmers adapt to changing weather. SOCLA and RedAgres are applying agroecology to development and scaling of resilient agricultural systems across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Read more about the new resource HERE.
