CGIAR CAC Program

How can farmers adapt to climate change while facing conflict and instability?

A new global study featuring International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA’s Dr. Boubaker Dhehibi reveals that access to training, extension services, trusted information, and financial support are key to helping farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture in fragile regions.

The research also highlights major gaps in access to risk-reduction tools such as agricultural insurance, despite their importance in building resilience.

➡️ Read the full study: repo.mel.cgiar.org/items/103f3979-28b3-4dfb-afdc-4c1dbe05e926

From flower to flower, pollinators carry the weight of feeding the world on their wings while protecting global food systems and biodiversity. On May 20th, the world honors bees, pollinators with an impact far greater than their size.

Three-quarters of the world's most important food crops and 87% of all flowering plants depend on pollinators. Bees and their kin are foundational to biodiversity at every level: the genetic diversity of plant populations, the diversity of species across ecosystems, and the integrity of habitats that sustain all terrestrial life. Yet pollinator populations are under growing pressure. Climate change, habitat degradation, unsustainable land use, and the excessive use of agrochemicals are accelerating their decline across many regions, threatening food production, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of millions of rural farming communities.

➡️ Read more:

The Pollinator Effect- World Bee Day 2026 | ICARDA Pollinators carry the weight of feeding the world on their wings while protecting global food systems and biodiversity. On May 20th, the world honors bees on World Bee Day, pollinators with an impact far greater than their size.

Eleven field trials across Pakistan helped farmers tackle inefficient fertilizer use by testing practical solutions to improve wheat yields, reduce input losses, strengthen soil health, and support more sustainable farming.

More than 1,200 farmers, researchers, extension agents, and private-sector representatives joined a series of Farmer Field Days across Pakistan this spring to explore practical approaches to improving fertilizer use in wheat systems.

➡️ Read more:

Fertilizer Trials in Pakistan | ICARDA Eleven field trials across Pakistan helped farmers tackle inefficient fertilizer use by testing practical solutions to improve wheat yields, reduce input losses, strengthen soil health, and support more sustainable farming.

Hunger today is no longer simply a failure of food production, but increasingly a consequence of conflict.

Conflict destroys infrastructure, displaces communities, and fractures supply chains. It drives up energy costs, which feed directly into fertilizer markets, raising agricultural input prices, reducing application rates, and ultimately lowering yields. This then translates into not only higher food prices, but also a gradual weakening of production systems. Climate extremes compound these pressures, while economic instability limits households' ability to absorb rising prices. Each of these forces is damaging on its own, but together, they are destabilizing.

Around 673 million people worldwide experienced hunger in 2024, roughly 8.2% of the global population. In 2025, some 2.3 billion people faced moderate or severe food insecurity, and over 2.6 billion people could not afford a healthy diet. Conflict and climate shocks remain the primary regional drivers, with more than 87 million people facing hunger in East and Southern Africa and 52 million projected to be acutely food insecure in West and Central Africa by mid-2026.

➡️ Read the Opinion Piece by Aly Abousabaa, Director General, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA:

Food Systems Under Strain: Navigating Conflict, Climate, and Scarcity | ICARDA Food insecurity today is no longer driven by scarcity alone, but by the convergence of conflict, climate, and economic instability, reshaping not only what we produce, but who can access it.

Rebuilding Syria’s agriculture starts with seed. 49 farmers are now producing certified wheat seed locally, reducing reliance on imports and restoring livelihoods. From kg to tons by 2027!

➡️ Read more:

Restoring Syria’s Seed Systems | ICARDA Rebuilding Syria’s agriculture starts with seed. ICARDA, FAO, and FCDO are restoring local seed systems, enabling farmers to produce certified, climate-resilient varieties and rebuild resilient, self-sustaining livelihoods.

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA is advancing speed breeding to help deliver climate-resilient crops in years instead of decades. By controlling light, temperature, and growth conditions, scientists can accelerate multiple generations each year.

➡️ Read an insightful article "Crop breeding: Against the clock":

Crop breeding: Against the clock It is January in Srinagar. Outside, temperatures hover below freezing and fields lie fallow. Inside a research facility at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricult

Water scarcity does not affect everyone equally. In rural drylands, women bear a disproportionate share of the burden, an inequality intensified by climate change. Yet they are also central to the solution. Women’s knowledge of managing scarce water resources is critical to adaptation, and supporting their role strengthens both households and food systems. Inclusive, gender-transformative approaches are essential for building resilient communities.

In the fertile but water-scarce corridors of Qena and Minya, Egypt, the success of a harvest has traditionally been measured by what leaves the field. But for rural women, the real challenge begins right after the produce is picked. Without adequate technologies to preserve freshness, a significant share of their produce, and the water invested in growing it, is lost to heat and spoilage.

➡️ Read more:

Improving Women’s Livelihoods through Water-Smart Post-Harvest Innovation | ICARDA Discover how women in Egypt are improving livelihoods and water productivity through solar drying and post-harvest innovation, reducing food loss and strengthening climate resilience.

Through the ATSAF Junior Scientists Tandems (JST) scholarship, implemented in partnership with GIZ, Master’s student Ugonna Oboke contributed to our joint work in Uzbekistan under the FAO-led FOLUR Impact Program.

Focusing on rainwater harvesting and contour terracing in the Kashkadarya region, the research demonstrated how simple, time-tested land management practices can restore degraded landscapes, improve soil moisture retention, and support tree establishment in arid environments.

By combining field-based innovation with the Social-Ecological Systems approach, this work highlights the importance of integrating community perspectives with scientific solutions to strengthen climate resilience.

➡️ Read more:

Researching Rainwater Harvesting in Kashkadarya, Uzbekistan | ICARDA Research in Uzbekistan shows how rainwater harvesting and contour terracing improve water retention, support tree growth, and help restore degraded drylands, linking field practices with policy for climate resilience.

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA March newsletter is now published.

➡️ Read about our work last month and ongoing and future events: mailchi.mp/cgiar.org/marchnewsletter2026

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