Climate Change and Adaptation: Recommendations for Agricultural Sector

Agriculture is a climate-sensitive enterprise. Agricultural sector should also employ appropriate strategies and approaches to adjust to climate change. Due to the significance of this issue, the main purpose of this chapter is to explain the necessity of climate change adaptation strategies in the agricultural sector. In order to achieve this purpose, some specific objectives including “characterizing the meaning and different kinds of adaptation to climate change,” “clarifying the relationship between adaptation to climate change and agricultural sustainability,” “positioning adaptation theory in agricultural development theories and discourses,” “introducing prerequisites and requirements of adaptation to climate change in developed and developing countries,” “explaining approaches to climate change vulnerability assessment,” and “introducing a comprehensive approach to climate change adaptation in agricultural sector” were defined. The main adaptation approaches to climate change include hazards-based and vulnerability-based approaches. The former focuses on gradual effects of climate change. That is, according to hazards-based approach, the assessment of agricultural adaptation to climate change is undertaken through predictions made in the field of climate change and designed on the basis of various scenarios, while the latter assesses future climate change trend by considering current climate risks. In other words, vulnerability-based approach places high emphasis on the social factors determining farmers’ and systems’ ability to combat climate damages. It is worth mentioning that one of the main drawbacks of these approaches is lack of emphasis on adaptation feedbacks. Furthermore, the results emphasized that although there is no a one-size-fits-all approach for adaptation to climate changes, being aware of the experiences of other countries (with similar climatic and geographical conditions) and adaptation strategies employed by them can definitely be useful for communities dealing with negative impacts of climate change.