Findings in Risk Management Reported from Columbia University (Climate Risk Management and Rural Poverty Reduction)

2019 JUN 03 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Risk Management have been published. According to news reporting originating in Palisades, United States, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Climate variability is a major source of risk to smallholder farmers and pastoralists, particularly in dryland regions. A growing body of evidence links climate-related risk to the extent and the persistence of rural poverty in these environments.”

Financial support for this research came from CGIAR Fund.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Columbia University, “Stochastic shocks erode smallholder farmers’ long-term livelihood potential through loss of productive assets. The resulting uncertainty impedes progress out of poverty by acting as a disincentive to investment in agriculture - by farmers, rural financial services, value chain institutions and governments. We assess evidence published in the last ten years that a set of production technologies and institutional options for managing risk can stabilize production and incomes, protect assets in the face of shocks, enhance uptake of improved technologies and practices, improve farmer welfare, and contribute to poverty reduction in risk-prone smallholder agricultural systems. Production technologies and practices such as stress-adapted crop germplasm, conservation agriculture, and diversified production systems stabilize agricultural production and incomes and, hence, reduce the adverse impacts of climate-related risk under some circumstances. Institutional interventions such as index-based insurance and social protection through adaptive safety nets play a complementary role in enabling farmers to manage risk, overcome risk-related barriers to adoption of improved technologies and practices, and protect their assets against the impacts of extreme climatic events. While some research documents improvements in household welfare indicators, there is limited evidence that the risk-reduction benefits of the interventions reviewed have enabled significant numbers of very poor farmers to escape poverty.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “We discuss the roles that climate-risk management interventions can play in efforts to reduce rural poverty, and the need for further research on identifying and targeting environments and farming populations where improved climate risk management could accelerate efforts to reduce rural poverty.”

For more information on this research see: Climate Risk Management and Rural Poverty Reduction. Agricultural Systems, 2019;172():28-46. Agricultural Systems can be contacted at: Elsevier Sci Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, Oxon, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Agricultural Systems - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/agricultural-systems/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J. Hansen, Columbia University, International Research Institute of Climate & Society, Lamont Campus, Pob 1000, Palisades, NY 10964, United States. Additional authors for this research include A. Rose, J. Hellin, J. Cairns, C. Stirling, T. Rosenstock, C. Lamanna, E. Fisher, J. van Etten and B. Campbell.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2018.01.019. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)