Vulnerabilities and inequalities in the adaptation of Mediterranean agricultural systems to the impacts of climate change (VIAMED-Clim)

Context and challenges

The Mediterranean Basin is considered to be a hot spot for climate change, with a recent acceleration that is generating major risks in several key sectors, particularly water and food. Climate change includes both long-term trends (increasing average temperatures, decreasing water resources) and extreme weather events (heat waves, droughts, torrential rain). These low- and high-frequency changes are already having a differentiated impact on agricultural yields and production systems.

However, the step-by-step construction of new farming systems depends on the strategies implemented by farmers to mitigate the effects of these changes, adapt to them or evolve in order to cope with them. Farmers' adaptation strategies will differ according to their exposure to climate hazards, their sensitivity to these hazards and their capacity to act. Exposure reflects the external dimensions of climate change; sensitivity and ability to adapt depend on both the internal characteristics (farmers’ personal resources, access to water, work organization, diversification) of farms and their interactions within their socio-ecosystem. These differences can be interpreted as both local (e.g. irrigated/rain-fed agriculture) and regional (e.g. North/South Mediterranean area) inequalities that need to be taken into account when implementing public policies for adaptation and mitigation.

Goals

Few studies have considered the adaptation and adaptability of farms AND regions in the face of shocks (particularly extreme weather events) from a multi-level perspective. This perspective considers the farm as part of a network of local stakeholders, thus allowing for complementarities (e.g. exchanges of materials), but possibly also competition for resources (e.g. available water) that can be used in adaptation strategies. How do these interactions condition the resources that can be used as well as the adaptation strategies? For what technical, economic and organisational performance? How do these adaptations relate to the innovations developed by research?

The VIAMED-Clim project involves researchers in agronomy, geography and economics. Its aim is to study the vulnerability and resilience of farms rooted in their territory, on two Mediterranean sites (in Tunisia and France). It combines two approaches: one that is local to (1) understand how climate change (and other major hazards) affects and is managed (adaptations) by farmers by using resources within the farm and the territory, and the other global to (2) recall the adaptations implemented locally, including diversification, in relation to adaptation strategies evaluated by scientific work on a regional scale, and (3) evaluate their performance in the two types of approaches, based on quantitative and qualitative criteria.

VIAMED-Clim will seek to answer three research questions:

• The role of climate change in farm vulnerability, from a multi-hazard perspective;
• Links between vulnerability, adaptation strategies and resources (within the farm vs. in relation to their socio-ecosystem);
• Strategy performance according to farmers and comparison/distance to those tested by research.

INRAE units involved

• INNOVATION – Montpellier
• Agronomie – Palaiseau
• TETIS – Montpellier

Partenaire extérieur : INAT - Tunisie