The Government of Sweden has contributed approximately US$12 million to help rural farmers adapt to a changing climate and to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced last January. This includes improving the resilience of 24 million people to climate shocks, as well as helping client countries implement the nationally determined contribution targets set under the 2016 Paris Agreement.
This contribution comes at a time when Southern Africa is facing its worst drought in 35 years, with more than 11 million people in nine countries facing emergency levels of food insecurity. Extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, put pressure on the ecosystems small-scale farmers depend on, leaving them particularly vulnerable to increased hunger and poverty, and often forcing them to leave their villages.
It is estimated that each degree-Celsius increase in global mean temperature would, on average, reduce global yields of wheat by 6%, rice by 3.2%, maize (corn) by 7.4%, and soybean by 3.1%.
