Food insecurity remains a critical challenge to the world's poor today. According to recent estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) one in nine persons in the world and about a quarter of those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are unable to meet their dietary energy requirements in 2014–2015. Although a range of factors influence food security around the world, local food production and the entitlements that are attached to it play a major role. Frequent climate shocks affect the access and availability dimensions of food security as most farm house-holds have limited possibilities of externalizing risk through formal insurance mechanisms. This is especially so in SSA where natural resources and rain-fed agriculture that are very sensitive to climate variability form the basis of livelihoods. Using a wide range of methods, previous studies have documented that the impact of climate variability on food security is largely negative for countries most dependent on the agricultural sector.

By means of bioeconomic agent-based simulation, this project seeks to evaluate the impacts of climate and price variability on smallholder productivity as well as the effectiveness of alternative adaptation strategies in various countries of SSA.

Period: 01.11.2012 - 31.05.2017

Funding: CIMMYT