This working paper examines case studies of three communities in Bhutan, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica that are already experiencing severe impacts of climate change. These case studies explore the incremental and transformative adaptation measures they have adopted or will need to in the future.

As climate change increasingly affects agriculture around the world, reliable, timely, and targeted information about weather and climate conditions is becoming an ever more urgent requirement for adaptation decision-making.

Climate change is already affecting crop production, and in some cases is undermining the viability of current crop systems. Crop research and development plays a critical role in developing the technologies and practices farmers need to maximize productivity and manage the increasing risks they face.

This paper specifically focuses on transformative approaches to climate-change adaptation in livestock production, including transformative pathways, or sets of discrete actions and strategies that can be sequenced to create a general trajectory toward transformation. Climate change impacts on agricultural systems are intensifying.

This working paper explores the concept of transformative adaptation for agriculture and why it is needed. It looks at how transformative outcomes could be achieved by aligning adaptation projects along pathways and adjusting planning processes to incorporate longer-term, more systemic approaches.