A new approach to measuring farm-level climate resilience
Farms are particularly exposed to climate extremes and unexpected seasonal variations in climate, but not all farms are adversely affected. Some may suffer heavy rainfall, but are insensitive to flooding due their location on sloping ground or well-drained soils. Some may have adapted their land management techniques, for example by using contour ploughing or use of perennial crops to avoid soil erosion in areas of high surface run-off. The determination of climate resilience for an individual farm therefore needs to take into account multiple factors that are unrelated to climate.
Long-range climate forecasts are based on global circulation models/ model ensembles that provide an understanding of the likely future climate trends around the world. These climate models typically look 15-75 years into the future. Of course farmers care about the future, but few have the luxury of being able to plan this far ahead, and the majority of farm businesses operate over much shorter time-frames. Our Climate Resilience Rating methodology therefore focuses on climate hazards that are most likely to affect farmers now, based on evidence from the recent past (the last decade). Climate models are used to determine whether recent trends are likely to reflect long-term trends.
Resilience Constellation’s Climate Resilience Rating takes account of the range of factors that contribute to farm resilience. It is built on methods developed by researchers and experiences and recommendations of practitioners over the last two decades. It has been designed to accommodate all farm types in all countries, by configuring the assessment to address local climate hazards, physical aspects of farms that make them sensitive to these hazards and responses that have been deployed. It provides an efficient, reliable and comparable means of assessing the resilience of farm businesses.
Calculating the resilience index score
The rating is based primarily on data gathered from farmers, by means of carefully structured questionnaires. Farm data is supplemented by geospatial data, national statistics and relevant research. Answers to the questions in the questionnaires enable the assessment of multiple indicators or factors that determine farmers’ ability to cope with climate hazards or, in other words, to assess their resilience.
Resilience factors are used to produce indices for exposure (EI), sensitivity (SI), adaptability (AI) and transformability. These factors are used to produce a resilience index (RI) scores for individual farms, using the formula:
The rating for a farm is based on its RI score and is associated with a particular climate hazard. The ratings range from A (most resilient) to E (least resilient).
Resilience categories
In addition to the rating, the resilience factors can also be used to provide an assessment of farm resilience in different categories:
- Infrastructural resilience: a measure of the resilience of the infrastructure (access to telecommunications, power, roads and transport) on which the farmer depends.
- Physical resilience: a measure of the physical aspects of a farm that make it resilient to a climate hazard, including slope, soil and perennial crop/ vegetation cover.
- Operational resilience: a measure of farm crops, cropping techniques and farm management practices to a climate hazard.
- Financial resilience: a measure of the ability of the farmer to cope with lost revenues and costs arising from a climate hazard.
- Social resilience: a measure of social support networks, access to government advice, access to information on adaptation and willingness to use it.
These categories enable farmers to understand where their businesses are most and least resilient to a climate hazard and help them to respond to things within their control. The categories also help other users of the ratings to understand where farm vulnerabilities lie and what financial products, equipment, advisory and emergency support may be of value to farm businesses.
Who Benefits from the Climate Resilience Rating?
The rating is of interest to farmers and farm businesses for benchmarking purposes, creating a demand for information on best practice for climate resilience, which Resilience Constellation also provides. The rating is also particularly relevant to organisations who count farm businesses amongst their customers, suppliers and stakeholders, including:
- Agricultural commodity, food manufacturing and agriculture supply chain companies
- International development organisations and development finance institutions
- Agricultural banks and lenders
- Insurers
- Agricultural associations.
Measuring Progress and Informing Adaptation Strategy
The Climate Resilience Rating methodology enables the production of a rating that permits a meaningful comparison of resilience across similar farms and within a given country. The ratings and resilience category scores provide a baseline for farms against which progress (or lack thereof) can be measured over time. With the baseline information established, annual monitoring activities can focus on resilience factors that are of most concern and those that can be used to measure the effectiveness of interventions on specific adaptation measures that have been deployed.
The data collected for the production of the ratings, which includes information from farmers on their own responses to climate hazards, provide powerful insights and the basis for formulating adaptation strategies that range from farm to sector level.
For more information on the delivery and application of our Climate Resilience Ratings, visit our ratings page or contact us here.