Financing Climate-Smart Agriculture for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems

A critical concern related to the agri-food system is inadequate financing to meet the adverse impacts of climate change, and the extreme variability of global food security and nutrition to attain Sustainable Development Goal 2 (zero hunger). As per the 2022 Report of the United Nations Secretary General on SDGs, 720 to 811 million persons suffered from hunger in 2020, with between 118 to 161 million added to the list of the hungry since 2019. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) interventions provide medium- to long-term opportunities but face financial challenges in the short term that slow efforts towards adaptation, mitigation, techno-economic diffusion, empowerment, access, equity, and inclusion. This brief recommends establishing and strengthening channels of financing through collaboration of all stakeholders including the private sector, multilateral banks, and public funding agencies for promotion of CSA.