Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Food Safety and Enhancing the Resilience of Rural Communities

The project entitled as Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security and Enhancing the Resilience of Rural Communities (ACLIFS) is implemented under the “Climate Change Adaptation Grant Program (CCAGP)”. The Directorate of Climate Change of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change (MoEUCC) is responsible for the coordination of the technical implementation of the grant program and the Directorate General of European Union and Foreign Relations, Department of European Union Investments of the MoEUCC is the Contracting Authority of the Grant Program.

ACLIFS Project is carried out under the coordination of TUBITAK Marmara Research Center. The project, which entered into force by signing the grant agreement on December 13, 2023, is expected to be completed in 18 months. Project co-beneficiaries are Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Ege University, Istanbul University, Istanbul Technical University, International Agricultural Research and Training Center and Fruit Research Institute.

Increasing the resilience and adaptive capacity of agriculture and livestock, which face great challenges due to changes in climatic conditions and the increased frequency and impact of extreme weather events, has become an important need to ensure sustainable and efficient production. The project aims to identify the impacts of climate change on agriculture and livestock in selected regions, including socio-economic consequences, and to evaluate adaptation options.

Within the scope of the project, it is aimed to carry out studies on modeling climate change in three selected basins (Küçük Menderes Basin, Eğirdir-Karacaören and Beyşehir Lakes Basins), estimating the predicted changes in water reserves, the effect of new reserve conditions on agricultural production, modeling the crop pattern under new conditions, and determining the economic and social impacts of new conditions.

As a result of the modeling studies to be carried out sequentially within the framework of the project, separate crop plans will be prepared for the selected 3 basins, and plans will be developed to increase the adaptation capacity of rural areas against climate change in order to mitigate economic and social impacts. In this framework, it is planned to organize 6 trainings, 6 focus group meetings and 4 regional workshops together with surveys targeting stakeholders contributing to agricultural production in the region.

The target groups and final beneficiaries of the project are mainly stakeholders from relevant parties such as local farmers, representatives of unions and cooperatives, and NGOs. Increasing the participation of all target groups and beneficiaries, both at the stage of collecting all necessary data and at the point of evaluating and discussing the project results, is critical for the success of the project.