Stories

Rural Malawians are still rebuilding and coming to terms with Freddy’s impacts. But thanks to much-needed investments in small-scale farming, hope is finally starting to appear on the horizon. 

Genetic, species, ecosystem: learn about the three main types of biodiversity and explore the role each plays in making agriculture productive, nutritious and resilient.

Peace and water are inextricably intertwined. That’s why sustainable rural development can help reduce conflict in communities – and why water is often the crucial element that can make the difference.

Visit the five inspiring winners of this year’s Gender Awards and find out how they’re addressing the harmful practices, social norms and economic disparities that keep women from achieving their potential.

We asked four farmers’ organization leaders from around the world about current challenges, new developments and their hopes for the future at the eighth global meeting of the Famers’ Forum.

Learn how to make a delicious and sustainable Malawian meal with these recipes collected from rural communities by Chef Sophie Grigson.

Wetlands are closely linked with our wellbeing – they protect against erosion, improve water quality, and host a vast range of species. Let’s visit some of these precious ecosystems and meet the rural people protecting them.

Growing food is a challenge in the harsh desert landscape of northwestern China. But thanks to new greenhouses built by a local cooperative, this village is bursting with fruits, vegetables and mushrooms.

Rural communities need energy to develop, but in a rapidly heating world, a green transition is crucial. Renewable sources, like solar power and biogas, are allowing them to prosper without relying on polluting fossil and wood fuels.

Climate change is making extreme weather events more intense and frequent.  With IFAD’s support, small-scale farmers are getting the advanced warning they need to limit damage to their livelihoods – and recover faster.

Rural people in Kiribati are leading the way in sustainable farming, making nutritious foods available and creating a foundation for better health in the years to come.

Integrated farming provides ecosystem benefits and builds climate resilience. Find out how this system is strengthening Cambodia’s small-scale farmers and their communities.

For rural people, the climate nightmare is a reality. They urgently need support to adapt to a changing world. To do this, IFAD is issuing three calls to action – find out what they are.

In a world of climate catastrophes, rising food prices and global instability, find out how persons with disabilities are taking their rightful place in the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

COP is an annual meeting where decision makers discuss how best to tackle climate change. But how did the summit come to be and what difference does it make for rural people? Find out here.

Climate change is having a huge impact on Indigenous Peoples all over the world. We sat down with three indigenous youth to talk about how erratic weather patterns are affecting their communities and how they are drawing on tradition and technology to cope with it.

When rural women access finance, the entire world flourishes. Find out how financially empowered women are leading the fight against climate change, achieving sustainable development and ensuring food security for their communities and the planet.

All over the world rural women face numerous challenges that men do not. Find out how an IFAD-funded project in Türkiye is providing them with the tools to lift themselves out of poverty and thrive.

Meet IFAD’s new Vice-President. Gerardine Mukeshimana discusses the importance of investing in rural communities, climate change adaptation and giving women access to resources.

As countries meet to evaluate how much progress has been made towards the Sustainable Development Goals, find out more about these 17 objectives and why they’re important for the rural communities we work with.

Small-scale farmers need financial support to face the climate crisis. For the last 20 years, IFAD and the Global Environment Facility have been supporting rural communities as they build food systems that nourish us all.

Drought is the number one cause of agricultural production loss. This is why IFAD supports small-scale farmers as they grow crops that are resilient, but often neglected.

Meet the woman who fought for her right to land ownership and contributed to halting drought and desertification.

Small-scale farmers in developing countries produce one third of the world’s food. But today they are only one flood, one drought or one failed harvest away from ruin. To stem the impact of climate change on food security and to reduce poverty, IFAD is calling for more investment in rural communities - now.

IFAD's new film, ‘A New Day’, tells the story of Tunisia’s rural people and is a testament to their resilience as they battle to adapt to our changing weather. We speak to two IFAD-supported project participants about their daily struggles, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future.

IFAD’s latest film, ‘A New Day’, was shot in Tunisia amid soaring temperatures. Get a behind the scenes look of how we made the film, the people we met and the challenges of shooting in an area dramatically affected by climate change.

 

In an age of multiple intersecting crises, only a holistic approach to both humanitarian and development assistance can disrupt the cycle.

The world is full of misconceptions about rural people and the environment. Find out what’s true and what’s not, as we debunk three major myths.  

Biodiversity is especially important for small-scale farmers. Here’s how IFAD is further integrating it into projects all over the world.

On World Bee Day, meet the pollinators buzzing to protect our planet and the rural people taking care of them.

Climate change poses a myriad of challenges for Argentina’s rural herders. But one woman has no intention of backing down and tells us how she plans to forge a new way forward.

Journalists can play an important role in telling the stories of Indigenous Peoples. Here are five ways in which the media can report on these important communities in a meaningful way.

 

Shepherds in Türkiye rely on the Taurus Mountains for their livelihoods - but living and working in these highlands is no mean feat. Here’s how IFAD-funded caravans have provided them with more comfortable, hygienic and safe living conditions. 

After 40 years working with rural people, here are some of the things we have learned to make our work under IFAD13 a success. 

The IPCC’s latest Synthesis Report is a reminder that the power is in our hands to prevent the very worst outcomes of climate change—if we take decisive and ambitious action now.

Climate change and a growing population are exacerbating water scarcity. As the water cycle is disrupted, farmers are coming up with inventive ways to harvest, store and use water. IFAD is helping them with simple but effective and climate-smart water infrastructure.

For over a month, Cyclone Freddy has been battering south-east Africa. This may be the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded—and vulnerable rural communities are in the eye of the storm. We explain what this means for IFAD’s project participants in the region.

As we near the end of 2022, IFAD looks back on some of the themes that defined a year of dramatic change. 

The Nile Delta is the breadbasket of Egypt, but climate change threatens agriculture here. IFAD is working to protect the land and improve the quality of previously infertile land. Sabrina Dhowre Elba, IFAD colleagues, and project coordinators and participants describe how this is changing people’s lives.

18 million persons with disabilities are expected to be displaced by climatic events by 2050, we must urgently include them in climate action—both as participants and decision makers.

As the countdown clock to 2050 ticks ever louder, IFAD was at COP27 to share what we know about responding to climate change. Here are five solutions to help the world get back on track towards a more sustainable future.

In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, a group of indigenous women are fighting climate change through reforestation and ancestral farming techniques.

 

Climate finance is complicated, and we get a lot of questions about everything it entails. We’ve put together some answers to the ones we receive most often.

Climate finance is essential to prevent the worst-case climate scenarios from happening and to protect the most vulnerable people from a climate breakdown.

When it comes to climate change, small-scale farmers are among the world’s most vulnerable communities. This is why IFAD focuses on climate resilient agriculture and climate finance through programmes like ASAP+.

Climate change and environmental degradation are posing an unprecedented threat to the world. Find out how small-scale fishers are weathering the storm – and becoming part of the solution.

 

Discover how IFAD uses Geographic Information Systems to better understand where and how climate change is affecting smallholder farming, and what is needed to mitigate its effects.  

In Tajikistan two neighbouring towns face different fates as one suffers the aftermath of drought and displacement and the other is saved by irrigation.

Even when a world without poverty seems out of reach, here’s how IFAD continues to work in developing countries, amplifying the voices of rural people and integrating them into value chains, so they can earn and save, while feeding the world and conserving the natural environment. 

Irrigation brings water to the world's poorest rural people in the right quantities and when they need it, helping farmers adapt to climate pattern shifts.

East Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades, with millions facing food insecurity as crops fail, livestock die and water sources dry up. Read how IFAD is building resilience to climate change and what else needs to be done.

Coastal communities in the Philippines depend on the sea for sustenance, but these once thriving oceans are emptying due to climate change and harmful fishing practices. Local women are fighting back, protecting fisheries while using them sustainably.

When Megnath Ale Magar returned to his village in Nepal after a decade working abroad, he found a degraded land. In just three years, he transformed his barren farmland into a lush ecosystem using a permaculture approach.

Climate change, commercial agribusiness, and societal norms threaten small-scale farmers’ way of life in a small village in Sudan. A women’s savings and credit group is changing this.

Years of conflict in Yemen have taken their toll – and among all of the devastation that’s been wrought, the country’s agricultural sector is one of the hardest hit. Now, an IFAD-supported initiative is helping Yemeni farmers get back on their feet.

In June 1972, members of the United Nations gathered in Stockholm for the first-ever conference on protecting the environment. Fifty years later, global leaders are returning to where it all began to decide where we go from here.

Biodiversity is the key to all the essential benefits we get from nature: from clean air to our ability to regulate the climate. At IFAD, we integrate protecting biodiversity into everything we do.

Healthy ecosystems are diverse ecosystems. And at IFAD, we believe that small-scale farmers are amongst the greatest stewards and beneficiaries of biodiversity.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s drylands – that is, the areas where more water is lost through evaporation than gained through rainfall – are facing widespread degradation. There are many factors causing this, but one of the most prominent is the use of agricultural practices that aren’t adapted to the land, such as overgrazing and intensive agriculture.

The Great Green Wall was envisioned as a line of trees stretching across Africa to protect against desertification. Today, it is a mosaic of farms, forests, and wilderness, where sustainable agriculture is the norm and rural-dwellers thrive.

From California to the Sahel, from the steppes of Central Asia to the Andes, drylands are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world. But they’re also some of the most fragile.

Over the millennia, indigenous peoples have developed practices that honour the interconnectedness of people and nature – yet all too often, their contributions are overlooked and devalued. IFAD is committed to supporting indigenous peoples in overcoming poverty and meeting global challenges through building on their identities and cultures.

While we can no longer avoid climate change, we can still limit its impacts. It is time we start viewing agriculture as an essential part of the solution.

Making the right decisions about managing natural resources isn’t always easy. That’s especially true for watersheds, where the local ecosystem depends on the health of multiple waterways. Now, GIS technology is helping communities in rural Nepal monitor and preserve the forests fed by local watersheds.

Sustainable development can only be achieved with the contributions of rural women, yet they face many challenges. Let’s meet three women who have transformed their lives with the help of the JP RWEE initiative.

In Sri Lanka, the climate crisis is causing rising temperatures, increasingly extreme weather events and variable precipitation patterns are harming agricultural productivity and food security. Through the Smallholder Agribusiness Partnership Programme, IFAD offers solutions for rural people, including promoting jackfruit among smallholder farmers because of its high value and resilience.

Below our feet lies a hidden treasure: groundwater. It sustains ecosystems and provides food, drink and livelihoods for billions. And as climate patterns change with global heating, this reliable water source is becoming ever more important for food security and livelihoods.

Forests are an excellent buffer against the effects of climate change. They’re also home to a variety of native plant and animal species that can foster resilient, sustainable local economies.

Farming can be a risky business indeed. Recently, some IFAD-supported initiatives have begun piloting crop insurance programmes for participating farmers – and for KCEP-CRAL farmers in Kenya, the new insurance policies arrived just in time.

Rural women already know what needs to be done to help their households and communities adapt to climate change and build resilience. Here are four ways to empower them for a climate-safe future.

Despite being largely responsible for the food on our farms and on our tables, women don’t have access to the same resources as men. Without access to land, finance, training, inputs and equipment, women can’t produce effectively, achieve financial stability or food security, or grow their businesses.

Women and girls all over the world are more strongly affected by climate change. For International Women’s Day, we’re taking a look at why that is and how women and girls can lead the way in adapting to the new environment.

The IPCC’s new report, “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, underscores the urgency of climate change adaptation.

Over half the world’s arable land is already degraded, and this number is growing at a rate of 23 hectares per minute. But with the support of an IFAD-funded project – along with an unlikely ally – farmers in Bolivia’s Pando region are restoring the land in record time.

The end of COP26 is fast approaching, and we’re still waiting for a final agreement. However, based on the draft texts that have been released, it’s clear there’s still a risk of gaps between long-term targets and short-term action.

In recent years, saline intrusion – the encroachment of seawater into fresh water sources – has become a serious threat to small-scale farmers in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta. Thanks to a public-private partnership, a local technology company was able to collaborate with an IFAD-supported project to create a lasting solution.

Agriculture is the main source of income and livelihood in rural Lao. But Lao crops are highly climate-sensitive, leaving farmers with little room for error when it comes to climate adaptation.

The start of the second week of the Glasgow Climate Change Conference marked a shift to a more political phase of the conference. Ministers arrived, former US President Barack Obama drew a crowd, and negotiations continued.

“Nature-based solutions” (NbS) might sound like a buzzword, but these techniques are some of the most effective tools in our arsenal against the effects of climate change.

IFAD Goodwill Ambassadors, Idris and Sabrina Elba attended COP26 to help ensure that African farmers are not left out of the climate conversation and to promote greater investments for small-scale farmers and producers to adapt to climate change.

IFAD believes rural economies and food systems have the potential to become more resilient, sustainable, inclusive – and productive – all at the same time. But to get there, we need to focus our attention and support on the people who make these systems work.

It’s the first day at the IFAD Pavilion at COP26 in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and we’ve come together with thousands of activists, world leaders and representatives of businesses and civil society from around the world to talk about the greatest challenge we face: how to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Between sowing their seeds and selling their harvest, smallholder farmers in developing countries face a multitude of potentially devastating risks. In Viet Nam, as in countries around the world, many of the most severe threats are climate-related, including storms, floods, excessive heat, frost and drought.

On one terrible day four years ago, Anjuli Rani Das’s life was swept away before her eyes. A flash flood engulfed her small duck farm, washing away everything she had worked for in the past years.

The IPCC report released in summer 2021 leaves no more room for ambiguity: the climate is changing, and it’s because of human activity. Here, we answer some of your questions about the report, why it’s important, and what its findings mean for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

The Delta of Saloum’s mangrove forest is rich in beauty and biodiversity, but it has suffered from years of deforestation, disrupting the area’s ecosystem and threatening the livelihoods of the area’s farmers and fishers. Recently, a collaborative project has begun to tackle both problems by funding a restoration of the mangrove and supporting local farmers’ associations.

We believe nature-based solutions (NbS) are the key to helping the most vulnerable people adapt to the effects of climate change. But just what are NbS, and why do we think they’re so great?

It’s official: human-induced climate change is happening. Some of its effects are already being felt, and further impacts are inevitable. Alongside mitigating our greenhouse gas emissions, we need to help those already feeling the worst effects – particularly small-scale agricultural producers – adapt.

Our food systems are failing us. From the climate, to the environment, to nutrition, to human health and well-being, they are not delivering the outcomes we all need. IFAD’s Rural Development Report 2021 describes the systemic issues that have led to the situation we are in, identifies priorities for transforming our food systems, and provides recommended actions to achieve meaningful change.

Nasreen’s family was struggling to make ends meet. Now, thanks to an IFAD-supported project, she runs her own ecological farm that produces high-quality, chemical-free vegetables – all while it restores the local ecosystem.

Eua Island is home to many of the Kingdom of Tonga’s natural resources. Recently, climate change and natural disasters have caused significant water supply challenges, but an IFAD-supported project – made possible by the islanders’ incredible community spirit – is working to change that.

For centuries, people living in Brazil’s semi-arid region have struggled with a lack of water. But over the last decades, thanks to support from IFAD and other development actors, these communities are squeezing a few more drops of water from Mother Nature.

Through the use of climate-smart agriculture techniques, an IFAD-supported project is helping rural Georgian farmers holistically restore their local and regional ecosystems.

In the Andes of Peru, rural farmers are helping to restore the region’s degraded lands and improve water security.

As the world grapples with the current pandemic, other threats, not least our climate emergency, have not gone away. The science is clear that without urgent global action, the climate and broader environmental crisis could be worse.

The best way to make the desert bloom is to dig a hole. Not a well, but a shallow pit in the sandy soil about as wide as the length of your forearm. Then add some dung, plant your seeds, and wait for the rains.

Our current food systems are not sustainable. Hunger has been on the rise for several years, with an estimated 811 million people worldwide going hungry in 2020 – and with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 132 million more people are expected to join this number soon. 

For countries like Bhutan – nestled in the high Himalayas, historically isolated and topographically challenging – ensuring food security is vital.

Life in the countryside isn’t always easy – especially for rural women, whose contributions and successes have only recently begun to receive the attention they deserve.

We are living in difficult times. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and all the fallout that has ensued, nothing is quite as easy as it was – unless, of course, you can do it from the comfort of your home, armed with a smartphone and a good internet connection. 

Despite the lush greenery that surrounds Ngarpongtang village in Thangrong, Bhutan, until recently, it was impossible to grow vegetables there. “I used to have to go to other villages to exchange pinewood for vegetables,” says Wangdi, a 54-year-old farmer. “We couldn’t get vegetables to grow here.”

We’ve been asking our Recipes for Change chefs to tell us how they are adapting to life during the coronavirus pandemic – and to share a delicious recipe that can be made with basic cupboard ingredients.

IFAD’s Recipes for Change chefs are adjusting to life in a world contending with COVID-19 – and as a part of that, they’re sharing some excellent recipes that you can make with ingredients you’ve already got in your home cupboard.

IFAD’s Recipes for Change chefs are carrying on with life under lockdown by sharing some excellent recipes that you can make with ingredients you’ve already got in your home cupboard. Senegalese Chef Pierre Thiam joins us from his home in New York State with a delicious recipe for vegan chilli.

As the world adjusts to life with COVID-19, we’re asking our Recipes for Change chefs to share some world-class recipes that you can make with ingredients you’ve already got in your home cupboard. Michelin-starred Chef Cristina Bowerman shares two simple and nutritious recipes involving chickpeas.

Climate change is contributing to increasing temperatures and droughts in Nepal, where corn and tomatoes are a staple food.

Agriculture is the foundation of Bhutan’s economy, employing more than 70 per cent of the population. Bhutan has made huge progress overall in recent years in improving its people’s standards of living, though poverty rates remain high in the eastern part of the country.

With an estimated 30 million hectares throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia and the Americas, bamboo can provide a significant contribution to combatting climate change in the developing world, particularly in rural communities.

Climate change is affecting global food systems in such a way that those who already suffer from hunger and undernutrition are also the most vulnerable to the added threats from climate change.  

Current food systems are at a crossroads. There is a strong need for transforming food production and consumption patterns in a sustainable way. One where farmers adapt and build resilience to the increasing challenges from climate change and where nutritious food is available for all. Agroecology provides one solution towards this transformation.

Tajikistan is a mountainous country nestled in Central Asia. Over five million people live a rural life, the majority of them depending on agriculture for their livelihoods.

 

An IFAD co-sponsored event at COP25 in Madrid brought together experts and celebrity chefs to examine how climate change is effecting food systems.

Agriculture is uniquely placed to tackle climate change while reducing poverty and increasing food security. The key role of the sector has been recognised by the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA).

Agriculture is responsible for much of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but family farmers are also responsible for promoting biodiversity and guaranteeing ecosystem services upon which agricultural activity depends. 

Climate change is no longer a problem for the future: it is happening now. Actions to tackle climate change and address the challenges it poses are paramount on the international policy agenda, as well as among IFAD priorities and commitments.

Most of the population of Bhutan depend on farming to make a living. However, as the climate crisis bites, this Himalayan nation is being hit by erratic rain, hailstorms and flash floods. This in turn is effecting farmers’ production.

Sri Lanka is a small island nation in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean off India’s southeastern coast. Given that a large proportion of the population is concentrated in coastal areas, the country is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Mapai is one of the driest districts of Mozambique, with an arid and semi-arid tropical climate where water for consumption, cattle and agriculture is the major challenge for the people living there.

The Haor region is a wetland ecosystem in north-eastern Bangladesh, which is located in a tectonic depression. During the monsoon period, the Haor gets between 3,000 and 4,000 mm of rainfall, together with the flow of monsoon river from the Meghalaya and Barak basins.

Mangroves are one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and play an essential role to ecological balance and community livelihoods. But in many areas across West Africa, these wildlife-rich wetlands are under threat.

Breadfruit is one of the main staple foods of Kiribati. Breadfruit trees require a tropical climate to thrive and are therefore plentiful in the Pacific region. Breadfruit is a good source of vitamin C, thiamine and potassium for the local population.

The world is faced with a rising demand for food due to population growth, changes in dietary habits and the availability of agricultural resources. As a result farmers need to be more efficient and productive. 

Try the Recipe at home: Ema datshi and millet momos - Bhutan

Climate change is one of the major dynamics of change affecting rural youth livelihoods. It is having significant effects on the countries in which the rural youth population is concentrated and on the sectors in which they will be looking for employment opportunities. 

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) aims to facilitate the evolution of agricultural systems in the face of a rapidly changing climate. IFAD's approach to promoting CSA for smallholders focuses on three core objectives.

Datasets on crop production increasingly need to take climate change into consideration, given its potentially profound repercussions for agriculture.

Climate change has made crop production more unpredictable – if rainfall helped this harvest, an unexpected drought could destroy the next. So how can one decide to invest in millet in Chad's Kanem region or if it's too risky put money in wheat in Lesotho's Thaba-Tseka?

Ideas are the lifeblood of innovation. To accelerate rural transformation while tackling rural poverty, food insecurity, nutrition, job creation and climate change, innovative ideas are needed. 

An international conference in Poland will try to finalise a deal on how to tackle climate change, but delegates from almost 200 countries are yet to agree on how to implement the Paris climate accord reached three years ago.

Delegates from some 200 countries are meeting for two weeks of talks on tackling climate change in Katowice, Poland at an event hosted by the United Nations.