Climate Changes and Their Impact on Agricultural Market Systems: Examples from Nepal

Andrea Karin Barrueto, Juerg Merz, Nicole Clot and Thomas Hammer
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Andrea Karin Barrueto: Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 10, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Juerg Merz: HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, Av. Julius Nyerere No. 1213, Maputo, Mozambique
Nicole Clot: HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, Weinbergstrasse 24, 8001 Zürich Switzerland
Thomas Hammer: Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 10, 3012 Bern, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: Global climate models foresee changes in temperature and precipitation regimes that shift regional climate zones and influence the viability of agricultural market systems. Understanding the influence of climate change on the different sub-sectors and functions of a market system is crucial to increasing the systems’ climate resilience and to ensuring the long-term viability of the sectors. Our research applies a new approach to climate change analysis to better understand the influence of climate change on each step of an agricultural market system—on its core (processing units, storage facilities and sales) and support functions (sapling supply, research, insurance and agricultural policy). We use spatial climate analyses to investigate current and projected changes in climate for different regions in Nepal. We then analyse the risks and vulnerabilities of the sub-sectors banana, charcoal, coffee, macadamia, orange, vegetables and walnut. Our results show that temperatures and precipitation levels will change differently depending on the climatic regions, and that climate change elicits different responses from the market functions both between and within each of the different sub-sectors. We conclude that climate-related interventions in market systems must account for each different market function’s specific response and exposure to climate change, in order to select adaptation measures that ensure long-term climate resilience.

Keywords: adaptation; agriculture; climate change; food security; market systems; Nepal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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