Absorb, adapt, transform: What climate resilience means for South Asia's farmers

For small-scale soybean farmer Sona Bai in Madhya Pradesh, a weather alert received on her basic feature phone proved critical. Her soybean harvest was out to dry when she received a warning of heavy rainfall. She immediately moved the crop to a safer place and covered it, while also alerting her neighbours, who did the same. Despite the heavy rain that followed, the harvest was saved, protecting the livelihoods that depend on it. Reflecting on the experience, Sona Bai  said, “I never knew a phone could change my life.”

Sona Bai and millions of small-scale farmers in Asia are now facing more extreme weather events than before. As the Earth warms due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, climate-related hazards such as droughts, floods and heat waves are becoming more frequent or intense in many regions, with devastating impacts on agriculture. In the first nine months of 2025, India witnessed extreme weather events on 270 of the 273 days, according to Down to Earth’s Climate India 2025 report. Such events affected 9.47 million hectares of cropped land. Between 2008 and 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that Asia lost US$49 billion in crop and livestock production due to extreme weather events.

South Asia has emerged as one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) identifies rising temperatures, changing monsoon patterns, droughts, floods and heat stress as major risks to crop and livestock production, food availability and rural livelihoods, with particularly serious projected impacts on crop production in South and Southeast Asia. The World Bank estimates that , under a high-emissions scenario, South Asia’s agricultural output could decline by 7.5 percent by 2050, owing to rising temperatures, water scarcity, irregular rainfall, and more frequent droughts and floods.

Even as crop losses mount due to weather-related events, farmers like Sona Bai also face increasing pressure to produce more food for a global population that continues to grow and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2037 . Making agriculture resilient to such weather shocks is, therefore, increasingly essential. At its most basic, climate-resilient farming ensures that crop losses are minimised or avoided despite erratic and extreme weather events. Access to timely weather advisories for nearly a million farmers, including Sona Bai, through IoT-based weather stations in villages across India, is a step in that direction.

Building the Foundations of Climate Resilience

Climate resilience in agriculture starts with a clear understanding of what it entails. A climate-resilient farm must be able to anticipate and absorb shocks, adapt as the climate shifts, and, where conventional systems are no longer viable, transform its practices, institutions and structures to help farmers sustain and prosper.

A climate-resilient farm must be able to anticipate and absorb shocks, adapt as the climate shifts, and, where conventional systems are no longer viable, transform its practices, institutions and structures to help farmers sustain and prosper.

Resilience is a capacity function. Climate resilience in agriculture can be framed around three interrelated capacities. The first is absorptive capacity: the ability to prepare for, withstand, and recover from shocks such as floods, droughts, storms, heatwaves, and pest outbreaks, while restoring essential farm functions. The second is adaptive capacity: the ability to make incremental changes to farming practices, such as adopting climate-smart technologies (like mulching), selecting the right crops, changing planting schedules, and adjusting irrigation techniques and resource use as climate conditions change. The third is transformative capacity: the creation of an enabling environment in which farmers can access the resources needed to transition to climate-resilient agriculture, including finance for investment in diversification and market access through strengthened farmers' institutions.

Coastal agricultural areas in Bangladesh face multiple interacting climate risks — cyclones, flooding, sea-level rise, and saltwater intrusion in agricultural fields — leading to increased soil and water salinity, which disrupts and reduces agricultural productivity. These risks are particularly severe for smallholder farmers, whose limited access to productive assets — such as rainwater harvesting structures and irrigation facilities — increases their vulnerability to climate shocks and threatens household food and livelihood security. For them, resilience means building adaptive capacity.

Adapting Farming to a Changing Climate

Building climate-resilient coastal agriculture requires an integrated approach. Smallholder farmers need reliable access to quality, climate- and salinity-tolerant seeds; improved surface-water and on-farm water management; functional drainage systems; soil-health and salinity-management practices; crop diversification; and practical knowledge and extension support.

Building climate-resilient coastal agriculture requires an integrated approach.

In Bangladesh's coastal Satkhira district in Khulna division, long-duration, salt-tolerant rice varieties are quietly turning former salt flats into thriving green fields. By giving smallholder farmers reliable yields of 5 to 6 tonnes per hectare, these resilient varieties are infusing new life into once-barren land. Adopting saline-tolerant varieties boosts paddy harvests by an average of 1 to 2 tonnes per hectare, translating to a vital net income gain of roughly US$ 100 per hectare for local farming families.

For soy farmer couple Gias and Asma in Lakshimpur district, Bangladesh, access to an improved seed variety turned their story around. The improved seed variety provided yields nearly double that of the local soybean variety prevalent in the area. Additionally, access to digital advisories in their local language introduced them to regenerative farming practices, including the use of organic inputs that tend to improve microbial activity in the soil and, in turn, improve soil health. The couple also received timely forecasts on weather events and salinity risks in the area. 

“The digital voice messages in Bangla have helped us improve our farming practices. The forecasts on natural calamities and salinity risks allowed us to take preventive actions (and checked losses) in both kharif and rabi seasons, while quick tips on soybean pests and diseases helped us protect our crops effectively,” Gias adds .

Resilience here is not just absorptive but also adaptive.

Transforming the Systems That Support Farmers

In Indonesia and Malaysia, where the small-scale farmer economy is dependent on oil palm cultivation, climate impact projections indicate that yields could fall by up to 30 percent if temperatures rise 2°C above the optimum and rainfall declines by 10–20 percent. These risks are particularly serious for small-scale oil palm farmers, because many operate in remote areas with low productivity, limited financial and technological knowledge, and limited institutional capacity.

In West Kalimantan, Indonesia, the remote location itself is a barrier to resilience for small-scale oil palm farmers. As roads flood during the monsoon, oil palm farmers struggle to access seedlings from nurseries, purchase inputs from the few local shops available, and transport their fresh fruit bunches to the mill.  Further, the average productivity of small-scale farmers in the region is lower than the national average.

Strengthening farmer cooperatives through training on business planning, record-keeping, and governance structures proved decisive.

Farmer field schools supported farmers with knowledge of sustainable agricultural practices, while input stores and oil palm nurseries were set up nearby, and a local community-based credit union provided farmer groups with loans. Strengthening farmer cooperatives through training on business planning, record-keeping, and governance structures proved decisive. The cooperative now aggregates harvests from smaller farmer groups and sells them directly to the mill. With middlemen eliminated and the cooperative negotiating directly with the mill on price, farmers are now earning 100–200 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) more per kilogram of fresh fruit bunches than before. With improved access to knowledge, quality inputs, finance, and markets, farmer resilience becomes transformative.

Call to Action

A weather advisory may help a farmer absorb one shock; switching to a salt-tolerant variety or improving soil health may enhance adaptive capacity. However, if farmers repeatedly face a lack of institutional support and finance, their capacity to build resilience remains limited. Small-scale farmers bear the brunt of climate impacts. Sustainable transition plans for agriculture must therefore place them and their needs at the centre of the design framework. Climate-resilient agriculture requires long-term, systemic investment, and the participation of several agencies.

Government policies must create an enabling environment for the development of climate-resilient infrastructure and last-mile extension services, to ensure that knowledge and facilities reach those working in the fields.

Government policies must create an enabling environment for the development of climate-resilient infrastructure and last-mile extension services, to ensure that knowledge and facilities reach those working in the fields. Businesses and value-chain actors also have a responsibility to share climate risks, invest in resilient supply chains, provide reliable market incentives, and support farmers in adopting resilient practices. Financial institutions, impact investors, and development partners must create innovative, blended-finance mechanisms — such as concessional loans — that reduce the cost and risk of investing in climate resilience for small-scale farmers.

Finally, research institutions and civil society must bridge the investment-adaptation gap with credible proof of concept, providing a solid launchpad for innovation and partnerships to scale.