Table of Contents
Brazil stands as one of the world’s leading agricultural powerhouses, ranking among the top exporters of soybeans, sugar, and beef, yet this critical position faces mounting threats from climate change. The nation’s agricultural sector, which contributes approximately 7 percent of GDP through traditional farming and livestock, and nearly 25 percent when including agribusiness processing and services, confronts unprecedented environmental challenges that threaten both food security and economic prosperity. Brazil is increasingly experiencing severe climate events, including extreme droughts, wildfires, floods, and heatwaves, which have resulted in significant environmental, economic, and social losses, deepening inequality and fueling public health crises.
The intersection of climate change and agriculture in Brazil represents a critical challenge not only for the nation but for global food systems. As climate patterns shift and extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, understanding these impacts and developing effective adaptation strategies has become essential for millions of people whose livelihoods depend on the land.
The Scale of Brazil’s Agricultural Vulnerability
Brazil’s vulnerability stems from its diverse ecosystems, heavy reliance on agriculture and hydropower, and its critical role in global climate dynamics due to widespread deforestation. The country’s agricultural landscape spans multiple biomes, from the Amazon rainforest to the Cerrado savanna and the Atlantic Forest, each with distinct climate characteristics and vulnerabilities.
Brazil has more than five million rural properties that vary significantly socially, economically, and culturally, with approximately 4% of rural properties covering 63% of agricultural land. This concentration creates a complex scenario where climate impacts affect different producer groups in vastly different ways, with smallholder farmers often bearing the brunt of climate variability.
A quarter of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agricultural activities, and the sector not only contributes to the worsening of the climate crisis but is also affected by it, facing increasingly frequent extreme temperature and precipitation events. This creates a feedback loop where agricultural practices contribute to climate change, which in turn threatens agricultural productivity.
Drought: The Most Devastating Climate Impact
Drought has emerged as one of the most significant climate threats to Brazilian agriculture, with devastating consequences for crop production and farmer livelihoods. Drought is one of the most significant threats to agriculture, affecting crop yields, farmer incomes, and local economic stability, with extreme droughts having the most severe effects.
Recent Drought Events and Their Impact
Prolonged dry conditions have caused the worst drought in central and southern Brazil in almost a century, expected to cause crop losses, water scarcity, and increased fire activity in the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands. These drought events have had cascading effects throughout the agricultural sector and beyond.
The La Niña climate phenomenon has played a particularly destructive role in recent years. A rare “triple-dip” La Niña event brought more rain to Brazil’s north and north-east regions, and drought to the south, severely impacting key agricultural regions. Brazil’s agricultural GDP declined by 8% in the first quarter of 2022 due to a severe drought in the country’s south caused by this rare triple-dip La Niña, with Rio Grande do Sul losing 56% of its total soy harvest.
Drier-than-normal weather has affected the production of important Brazilian crops such as coffee, corn, sugarcane, and oranges, with yields for the second corn crop hitting a five-year low and coffee production in São Paulo state forecasted to drop as much as 20 to 30 percent from normal levels.
Economic Losses from Drought
The financial toll of drought on Brazilian agriculture has been staggering. Revenue losses from drought have totaled USD 4.56 billion for rice, USD 3.55 billion for maize, and USD 14.30 billion for soybeans over the study period from 1974-2020. These losses represent not just numbers on a balance sheet but real hardship for farming communities across the country.
Over the last two harvests, soy and corn, which together account for 88% of Brazil’s national grain production, came in 47 million metric tons below expected production due to adverse weather conditions, with soy production dropping by 14%. Such production shortfalls have ripple effects throughout the economy, affecting food prices, export revenues, and employment.
Water Resource Challenges
Drought impacts extend beyond crop fields to critical water infrastructure. Low water levels are noticeable around several lakes in the Paraná River basin, home to several hydroelectric dams and reservoirs, with seven of the 14 main reservoirs standing at their lowest levels since 1999. This creates a dual crisis, as Brazil relies heavily on hydropower for electricity generation, and reduced water availability threatens both agricultural irrigation and power supply.
Irrigation for agriculture accounts for 72% of water use in Brazil, compared to just 9% for urban consumption, highlighting the sector’s dependence on adequate water resources and its vulnerability to drought conditions.
Changing Rainfall Patterns and Extreme Weather
Beyond drought, Brazil faces increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns and extreme weather events that disrupt agricultural planning and production cycles. Rainy seasons are starting later and dry seasons are more intense, requiring a lot more moisture to make up the deficit when the rains do come.
In recent years, southern Brazil has experienced severe and unprecedented summer droughts, such as those observed in 2023, followed by extreme flooding events, including a notable incident in May 2024, where rainfall exceeded 500 mm within a few days. This whiplash between drought and flood creates enormous challenges for farmers trying to plan planting and harvesting schedules.
Droughts impact agricultural output and electricity prices, while extreme weather events have generated yearly output losses of 0.13 percent of GDP on average over the past 20 years. While this percentage may seem small, it represents billions of dollars in lost economic activity and affects millions of people’s livelihoods.
Regional Variations in Climate Impact
Climate change does not affect Brazil uniformly; different regions face distinct challenges based on their geography, climate patterns, and agricultural systems.
Southern Brazil
Southern Brazil, particularly Rio Grande do Sul, has experienced some of the most severe climate impacts. Scientists warn that climate change will make Brazil’s southern region, an agribusiness stronghold, widespread crop losses more common. The region’s importance to national grain production makes these impacts particularly concerning for food security and export revenues.
Rice was more sensitive to medium-term droughts, whereas maize and soybeans were more affected by short-term water deficits, demonstrating how different crops respond differently to climate stresses and requiring tailored adaptation strategies.
Northeast Brazil
The poorest regions of Brazil — such as the Northeast, where the population has historically had the lowest income, education and housing conditions — will be disproportionately affected by climate change. This region faces unique challenges due to its semiarid climate and high concentration of smallholder farmers.
A larger fraction of farms in Northeast Brazil are family farms, and this segment is the one that is most affected by drought events, partly because of their few resources for adaptation. Most of smallholder farmers within the semiarid Northeast Brazil relied on annual crops not well adapted to drought, such as maize, beans, and cassava, making them particularly vulnerable to changing climate conditions.
Central-West and Amazon Regions
Climate scenarios suggest a decrease in soybeans and corn production, mainly in the Matopiba region in the Northern Cerrado, and southward displacement of agricultural production to near-subtropical and subtropical regions of the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest biomes. This geographic shift in agricultural suitability will require massive adjustments in land use and farming practices.
Already 28% of agricultural lands are no longer in an optimal climatic range, and that percentage will shoot up to 74% by 2060 as the region gets hotter and drier. This dramatic projection underscores the urgency of adaptation measures and the potential for significant disruption to Brazil’s agricultural sector.
The Deforestation-Climate Feedback Loop
One of the most concerning aspects of Brazil’s climate challenge is the feedback loop between deforestation and climate change. Human-caused climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires in forest ecosystems, and wildfires have become a large driver of forest loss in the last 10 years.
Increasing dry-season length and drought frequency have diminished the Amazon’s resilience against shocks and may have already pushed the Amazon close to a critical threshold of rainforest dieback. Crossing this tipping point would have catastrophic consequences not just for Brazil but for global climate systems.
Deforestation makes water-intensive sectors more vulnerable, and estimates quantify the output loss of reaching the Amazon tipping point for Brazil alone at 10 percent of 2022 GDP through 2050. This represents an existential threat to Brazil’s economic future and highlights the critical importance of forest preservation.
Forests act like air conditioners for crops, and farmers need to understand that deforesting in the face of climate change is like getting rid of air conditioners before an upcoming heatwave. This vivid analogy captures the counterproductive nature of continued deforestation in a warming climate.
Impacts on Crop Production and Food Security
Climate change affects different crops in different ways, with implications for both domestic food security and international markets. Brazilian main agricultural commodities are soybeans, corn, and sugar cane which together accounted for 84.4% of Brazilian cropland area in 2017, with soybeans responding for more than 50% of the total agricultural exports in 2018.
Climate change leads to lower yields for important crops, such as corn and sugarcane, by the 2050s, threatening Brazil’s position as a global agricultural leader. Without adaptation, domestic agricultural production would fall by up to 2 percent and agriculture imports would increase significantly (from 3.9 to 5.9 percent of GDP or by about 50 percent).
Practices like double-cropping corn and soy in one season are common but require farmers to take advantage of the full length of the rainy season, and if farmers can no longer plant two crops in one season, the pressure to deforest additional land to make up for lost profits will increase. This creates a dangerous cycle where climate impacts drive behaviors that worsen climate change.
Socioeconomic Impacts on Rural Communities
The impacts of climate change on agriculture extend far beyond crop yields to affect the social and economic fabric of rural communities. Rural producers are a heterogeneous group affected in diverse ways and to different extents by climate risks, with climate impacts on production volume and income generated varying considerably by crop and geographic region.
Smallholder Farmer Vulnerability
Smallholder farmers face disproportionate risks from climate change due to limited resources for adaptation. These farmers often lack access to irrigation infrastructure, climate-resilient crop varieties, crop insurance, and the financial resources needed to weather poor harvests. When crops fail due to drought or extreme weather, smallholder farmers may lose their entire annual income, pushing families into poverty and food insecurity.
The concentration of agricultural land ownership exacerbates these inequalities. While large commercial operations may have the capital to invest in adaptation measures such as irrigation systems, drought-resistant seeds, and crop insurance, smallholder farmers often struggle to access even basic resources. This disparity means that climate change risks widening the gap between large and small producers, with potentially severe social consequences.
Migration and Rural Exodus
As agricultural livelihoods become increasingly precarious due to climate variability, rural-to-urban migration may accelerate. When farming becomes economically unviable due to repeated crop failures, families may have no choice but to abandon their land and seek opportunities in cities. This rural exodus can lead to the loss of traditional agricultural knowledge, abandonment of farmland, and increased pressure on urban infrastructure and services.
Food Security and Nutrition
Climate impacts on agriculture directly threaten food security, particularly for vulnerable populations. When crop production declines, food prices typically rise, making nutritious food less accessible to low-income families. Smallholder farmers who grow food for their own consumption face the double burden of reduced harvests and higher prices for food they must purchase. This can lead to increased malnutrition and food insecurity, particularly affecting children and pregnant women.
Government Policies and Institutional Responses
Brazil has developed various policy frameworks to address climate change in agriculture, though implementation and effectiveness vary. Brazil’s agricultural sector has public policies that seek to promote mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and this policy framework, if well implemented, can be used as a catalyst for a scaled transition towards low-carbon agriculture.
The ABC Plan and Its Evolution
Climate-oriented policies are concentrated from 2010 onwards, associated with the launch of the 2009 National Policy on Climate Change that established Brazil’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and resulted in the adoption of an Agricultural Sector Plan for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. This ABC Plan (Agriculture of Low Carbon Emission) represented a significant step toward integrating climate considerations into agricultural policy.
Following COP 29, Brazil updated its Nationally Determined Contributions, committing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 48 percent by 2025 and 53 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 emissions. These ambitious targets require substantial transformation in agricultural practices and land use.
Social Justice Considerations
Elements of social and economic justice are present in both mitigation and adaptation policies and are primarily aimed at prioritizing family farming and increasing income. This recognition that climate policy must address equity concerns is crucial for ensuring that adaptation measures don’t exacerbate existing inequalities.
The severity of climate risks requires the large-scale adoption of low-carbon practices, based on sustainable technologies, which combine increased productivity — without expanding the cultivated area — with resilience to climate events. This approach seeks to balance productivity, sustainability, and climate resilience.
Adaptation Strategies and Solutions
Addressing climate impacts on Brazilian agriculture requires a multifaceted approach combining technological innovation, policy support, and community-level action. Policy options to address key vulnerabilities and leverage opportunities include boosting the Amazon’s resilience via fiscal incentives for forest protection, investing in climate smart agriculture and insurance guided by sustainable feebates, continuing the diversification of renewable power generation, and stimulating green growth while greening the financial sector.
Climate-Resilient Crop Varieties
Developing and deploying drought-resistant and heat-tolerant crop varieties represents a critical adaptation strategy. Plant breeding programs are working to develop varieties that can maintain productivity under stress conditions, including reduced water availability and higher temperatures. These improved varieties can help farmers maintain yields even as climate conditions become more challenging.
However, access to improved seeds remains a challenge, particularly for smallholder farmers who may lack the financial resources to purchase new varieties or the information needed to select appropriate options for their conditions. Extension services and seed distribution programs play crucial roles in ensuring that climate-resilient varieties reach the farmers who need them most.
Water Management and Irrigation
Improved water management represents another critical adaptation strategy. This includes both large-scale infrastructure projects and farm-level practices. Efficient irrigation systems, water harvesting techniques, and soil moisture conservation practices can help farmers cope with reduced and more variable rainfall.
Soil conservation practices that improve water retention are particularly important. Cover cropping, reduced tillage, and organic matter incorporation can all enhance soil’s ability to capture and retain moisture, reducing vulnerability to short-term dry spells. The drought taught farmers that soil can’t be left bare and always needs to be well nourished and protected with different mulches to keep moisture in.
Crop Diversification
Diversifying crop production can reduce vulnerability to climate variability by spreading risk across multiple crops with different climate sensitivities and growing seasons. Rather than relying on a single crop that may fail in adverse conditions, farmers who grow multiple crops have better chances of maintaining some production even when conditions are poor for certain crops.
Integrating crops with livestock and forestry—known as integrated crop-livestock-forest systems—can provide additional resilience benefits. Trees can moderate microclimates, reduce soil erosion, and provide alternative income sources, while livestock can utilize crop residues and provide manure for soil fertility.
Agroforestry and Sustainable Land Management
Agroforestry systems that integrate trees with crops and livestock offer multiple benefits for climate adaptation. Trees provide shade that can moderate temperature extremes, reduce evaporation, and protect crops from wind damage. Tree roots can access water from deeper soil layers and help prevent erosion. Additionally, agroforestry systems can sequester carbon, contributing to climate mitigation while enhancing farm resilience.
Sustainable land management practices more broadly—including maintaining vegetation cover, preventing soil degradation, and protecting water sources—are essential for long-term agricultural sustainability in a changing climate. These practices help maintain the productive capacity of agricultural land even as climate conditions shift.
Climate Information and Early Warning Systems
Access to accurate, timely climate information can help farmers make better decisions about when to plant, which crops to grow, and when to harvest. Seasonal forecasts, drought monitoring systems, and early warning systems for extreme weather events can all support more informed agricultural decision-making.
However, climate information is only useful if it reaches farmers in accessible formats and if farmers have the capacity to act on it. Extension services, farmer training programs, and communication systems that deliver climate information through channels farmers actually use are all essential components of effective climate information services.
Financial Instruments and Insurance
Climate risk insurance and other financial instruments can help farmers manage climate variability by providing compensation when crops fail due to drought or other climate-related events. Index-based insurance that pays out based on rainfall measurements or vegetation indices can provide faster payouts than traditional crop insurance and reduce administrative costs.
However, insurance is only accessible if it’s affordable and if farmers understand how it works. Subsidized insurance programs, group insurance schemes, and farmer education about insurance products are all important for expanding access to this risk management tool.
Investment Requirements
Adaptation investment needed in addition to standard development investment is in the range of 0.1-0.3 percent of GDP per year between 2025 and 2050, with optimal adaptation levels increasing to 0.25–0.5 percent of GDP per year by 2050 with no financing constraints. These investments are substantial but necessary to maintain agricultural productivity and food security in the face of climate change.
The Role of Forest Conservation
Forest conservation emerges as a critical strategy for both climate mitigation and agricultural adaptation. The key to successfully adapting Brazilian agriculture to a warmer climate lies in restoring and preserving native vegetation on the landscape—reducing the pressure on farmers to deforest and finding ways for forests and agriculture to share the land.
The Amazon rainforest functions as a crucial carbon sink and provides rainfall that much of the South American continent relies on and is home to 10% of all known wildlife species. Protecting this ecosystem is therefore essential not just for biodiversity conservation but for maintaining the climate conditions that support agriculture across the region.
The relationship between forest cover and agricultural productivity is complex but increasingly clear. Forests influence regional rainfall patterns, moderate temperatures, and help regulate water cycles. As forests are cleared, these regulatory functions are lost, potentially making agricultural conditions more difficult even as more land is brought into production.
Challenges in Implementation
Despite the availability of adaptation strategies and policy frameworks, significant challenges remain in implementing effective responses to climate change in Brazilian agriculture.
Knowledge and Capacity Gaps
Many farmers, particularly smallholders, lack access to information about climate change, its impacts, and available adaptation options. Extension services that could provide this information are often underfunded and understaffed, particularly in remote rural areas. Building farmer capacity to understand and respond to climate change requires sustained investment in education and extension.
Financial Constraints
Many adaptation measures require upfront investment that smallholder farmers cannot afford. While improved irrigation systems, drought-resistant seeds, or agroforestry systems may provide long-term benefits, the initial costs can be prohibitive for farmers operating on thin margins. Access to affordable credit and subsidy programs is essential but often limited.
Policy Implementation Gaps
While Brazil has developed comprehensive climate policies for agriculture, implementation often lags behind policy commitments. Bureaucratic obstacles, insufficient funding, lack of coordination between different government agencies, and competing political priorities can all impede effective policy implementation. Ensuring that policies translate into real support for farmers on the ground remains a persistent challenge.
Conflicting Interests
Tensions between agricultural expansion and forest conservation create political and economic challenges for climate action. Powerful agricultural interests may resist policies that limit deforestation or require changes to production practices. Balancing the immediate economic interests of agricultural producers with long-term sustainability and climate resilience requires careful policy design and political will.
Future Projections and Scenarios
Looking ahead, the trajectory of climate impacts on Brazilian agriculture will depend on both global emissions pathways and domestic policy choices. Under high-emissions scenarios, around 52 million hectares of natural land could be converted for agricultural use to meet rising food demand, driving a projected 28% increase in agricultural revenue between 2025 and 2050, but releasing a total of 12 gigatonnes of CO2 over this period.
Conversely, under sustainable scenarios, revenue from agriculture is projected to fall by 31% between 2025 and 2050, but this comes with positive environmental trade-offs, with more than 12.4 gigatonnes of additional CO2 expected to be sequestered. These contrasting scenarios highlight the fundamental trade-offs between short-term agricultural expansion and long-term environmental sustainability.
Reconciling agriculture with biodiversity and climate is critical in Brazil’s sustainable transition, with future global developments in food demand and agricultural yields determining how much land the country dedicates to agriculture, and the more land required for production, the greater the impacts on biodiversity and carbon storage.
International Dimensions and Global Implications
Brazil’s agricultural challenges have implications far beyond its borders. As a major global food exporter, climate impacts on Brazilian agriculture affect international food prices and food security worldwide. Disruptions to Brazilian soybean, corn, or beef production can ripple through global commodity markets, affecting food prices and availability in importing countries.
International cooperation and support can play important roles in helping Brazil address climate challenges in agriculture. Technology transfer, financial assistance for adaptation investments, and support for forest conservation can all contribute to more sustainable and resilient agricultural systems. International markets can also incentivize sustainable practices through preferential treatment for products certified as deforestation-free or produced using climate-smart practices.
At the same time, international demand for agricultural commodities creates pressures that can drive deforestation and unsustainable agricultural expansion. Addressing climate challenges in Brazilian agriculture therefore requires not just domestic action but also changes in global consumption patterns and trade relationships.
Opportunities for Transformation
While climate change poses severe challenges to Brazilian agriculture, it also creates opportunities for transformation toward more sustainable and resilient systems. While climate vulnerabilities are significant and recent patterns of land-use further amplify climate change risk, Brazil’s opportunities for green growth are vast.
The need to adapt to climate change can drive innovation in agricultural practices, technologies, and business models. Investments in climate-smart agriculture can simultaneously improve productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce emissions. The development of new crop varieties, precision agriculture technologies, and sustainable intensification practices can help Brazil maintain its position as an agricultural leader while reducing environmental impacts.
The growing global market for sustainable agricultural products creates economic opportunities for Brazilian producers who adopt climate-friendly practices. Premium prices for certified sustainable products can provide financial incentives for conservation and sustainable production methods. Brazil’s vast renewable energy resources, including solar, wind, and bioenergy, offer opportunities to power agricultural operations with clean energy.
Key Recommendations for Action
Addressing climate impacts on Brazilian agriculture requires coordinated action across multiple levels and sectors. Based on current evidence and experience, several key recommendations emerge:
- Scale up investment in climate adaptation: Mobilize the necessary financial resources—estimated at 0.1-0.5% of GDP annually—to support adaptation measures including improved irrigation, climate-resilient crop varieties, and sustainable land management practices.
- Strengthen extension services and farmer education: Ensure that farmers, particularly smallholders, have access to information about climate risks, adaptation options, and sustainable practices through well-funded and effective extension programs.
- Expand access to climate risk management tools: Make crop insurance, weather-indexed insurance, and other financial instruments more accessible and affordable for smallholder farmers to help them manage climate variability.
- Prioritize forest conservation and restoration: Implement and enforce policies that protect remaining forests and support restoration of degraded lands, recognizing the critical role of forests in regulating climate and supporting agricultural productivity.
- Promote sustainable intensification: Support practices that increase productivity on existing agricultural land without expanding into natural ecosystems, including integrated crop-livestock-forest systems, precision agriculture, and improved soil management.
- Strengthen climate information services: Invest in weather monitoring, seasonal forecasting, and early warning systems, and ensure this information reaches farmers in accessible and actionable formats.
- Address equity and social justice: Design adaptation policies and programs that specifically support vulnerable groups, including smallholder farmers, women farmers, and communities in the poorest regions.
- Enhance policy coordination and implementation: Improve coordination between different government agencies and levels of government, and ensure adequate resources and political support for implementing climate policies.
- Foster innovation and technology development: Support research and development of climate-resilient crop varieties, sustainable production technologies, and innovative approaches to climate adaptation.
- Engage the private sector: Create incentives for private sector investment in climate-smart agriculture and sustainable supply chains, including through green finance mechanisms and market-based approaches.
The Path Forward
Brazil stands at a critical juncture in its agricultural development. The climate challenges facing the sector are real and growing, with potentially severe consequences for food security, rural livelihoods, and economic prosperity. Adverse weather conditions, including through stronger episodes of El Niño, which alter precipitation patterns, as well as increased drought risks have a profound impact on agricultural production and prices, and thus on Brazil’s economy.
Yet Brazil also possesses significant assets for addressing these challenges: vast renewable energy resources, world-class agricultural research institutions, diverse ecosystems that can support varied production systems, and growing recognition of the need for sustainable development. The question is whether these assets can be mobilized effectively to support the transformation needed.
Success will require sustained commitment from government, private sector, civil society, and farming communities. It will require difficult choices about land use, agricultural practices, and development priorities. It will require significant investments in adaptation infrastructure, technology, and human capacity. And it will require addressing the social and economic inequalities that make some communities far more vulnerable to climate impacts than others.
The stakes could not be higher. Agriculture supports the livelihoods of millions of Brazilians, contributes substantially to the national economy, and plays a critical role in global food security. The Amazon and other Brazilian ecosystems provide essential climate regulation services for the entire planet. How Brazil navigates the challenges of climate change in agriculture will have profound implications not just for Brazilians but for people around the world.
The good news is that solutions exist. Climate-resilient crop varieties, sustainable land management practices, improved water management, agroforestry systems, and other adaptation strategies have been developed and tested. Policy frameworks for supporting climate-smart agriculture are in place, even if implementation remains incomplete. The knowledge and tools needed to build more resilient agricultural systems are available.
What’s needed now is the political will, financial resources, and sustained effort to implement these solutions at scale. This means moving beyond pilot projects and demonstration farms to transform agricultural practices across millions of hectares and millions of farming households. It means ensuring that the benefits of adaptation reach not just large commercial operations but also the smallholder farmers who are most vulnerable to climate impacts.
It also means recognizing that agriculture and environmental conservation are not inherently in conflict. Sustainable agricultural systems that work with nature rather than against it can be both productive and environmentally sound. Forests and farms can coexist on the landscape, with forests providing essential ecosystem services that support agricultural productivity. Climate mitigation and adaptation can be pursued together, with practices that reduce emissions while building resilience.
The transformation of Brazilian agriculture in response to climate change will not be easy or quick. It will require sustained effort over decades, with setbacks and challenges along the way. But the alternative—continuing with business as usual as climate impacts intensify—is simply not viable. The choice is between managed transformation now or forced disruption later.
For the millions of Brazilians whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, for the global community that relies on Brazilian food production, and for the planet that depends on Brazilian ecosystems for climate regulation, the imperative is clear: Brazil must rise to the challenge of building agricultural systems that can thrive in a changing climate while contributing to climate solutions rather than climate problems.
The path forward requires integrating climate considerations into all aspects of agricultural policy and practice, from land use planning to credit programs to extension services. It requires investments in the infrastructure, technology, and knowledge systems that farmers need to adapt. It requires policies that make sustainable practices economically attractive and unsustainable practices economically unattractive. And it requires ensuring that the transition to climate-resilient agriculture is just and equitable, supporting rather than harming the most vulnerable.
Brazil has shown in the past that it can achieve remarkable transformations in its agricultural sector, becoming a global agricultural powerhouse through investments in research, technology, and infrastructure. Now it must achieve another transformation—building agricultural systems that can sustain productivity and livelihoods in a fundamentally different climate while protecting the natural systems that all life depends on. The challenge is immense, but so too is Brazil’s capacity to meet it.
For more information on climate-smart agriculture practices, visit the FAO Climate-Smart Agriculture portal. To learn more about Brazil’s climate policies and commitments, see the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. For data on agricultural production and climate impacts, consult the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Additional resources on climate adaptation strategies can be found at the World Bank Climate Change portal.