Methodological Approaches to Assess the Resilience of Farming Systems to Climate Change: Examples from Latin America

The unpredictability, increasing frequency and severity of extreme climatic events, is forcing researchers and farmers to urgently develop adaptation practices to enhance the resilience of agroecosystems to climate change. The identification of farming systems that have withstood recent climatic events and understanding the agroecological features that allowed such systems to resist and/or recover from drought and/or hurricanes is of strategic importance. This paper describes a number of methodologies aimed at assessing the resilience of Latin American agroecosystems by estimating the level of vulnerability and the response capacity of selected farming systems to cope with climatic threats. The methodologies utilize a set of socio-ecological indicators that can be easily evaluated in the field, allowing farmers to assess whether their farms can withstand or not a major climatic event (drought or hurricane) and what to do to enhance the resiliency of their farms in preparation for future events. The derived resiliency principles and practices that underlie the success of resistant farms can then be disseminated to thousands of farmers, thus contributing to the scaling up of the adoption of agroecological adaptation practices.