Farming has always been a risky enterprise, but climate change is magnifying the risks, especially for smallholder farmers living on the precarious margins of the earth’s productive lands.

Over the centuries, smallholders have drawn on traditional knowledge and historical observations to manage the effects of a variable climate. Today, the speed and intensity of environmental change is outpacing their capacity to do so. Historical averages are no longer a reliable guide for the future. Losses and damages from extreme weather keep increasing, as the pattern of droughts, floods and tropical storms becomes ever more unpredictable.

Read more: http://www.ifad.org/climate/asap/smallscale.htm