Adept at adapting

Everyone should be concerned about climate change but the people who are going to be hit the hardest are the world’s poorest farmers. Read on to learn who they are and what needs to be done to help them.

A few years ago in Tanzania, Melinda and I met Christina Mwinjipe, who was working hard to support her family farming a small plot of land. Like many smallholder farmers, her life was a high-wire act—without safety nets. The year I met Christina her farm was threatened by drought and crop disease.

Unlike farmers in rich countries, poor farmers don’t have access to improved seeds and modern agricultural equipment that can help them cope with higher temperatures and more extreme weather. One ruined harvest is enough to sink them deeper into poverty.

On the left tools that are still used today in many countries vs. the modern equipment on the right.

New crop varieties are better suited to drier and wetter climates during extreme weather. The farmer on the left used a rice variety that was destroyed by flood. The farmer on the right used a new variety of flood-resistant rice—nicknamed “scuba rice”—that can survive for 2 weeks underwater.

I’m the world’s biggest fan of fertilizer. I’m endlessly fascinated by the stuff. It’s a magical material that can transform the lives of the poor by helping them grow bigger harvests and adapt to the impacts of climate change.