The global agri-food system sits at a critical crossroads: it must meet growing food demand while urgently curbing its environmental impact. Responsible for roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions and a leading driver of soil degradation, freshwater depletion and biodiversity loss, the sector faces mounting pressure as climate change simultaneously erodes agricultural productivity through droughts and extreme weather.
This guide provides development practitioners with practical tools to embed climate adaptation and mitigation into agri-food project design, and to measure resulting environmental outcomes. It addresses adaptation through indicators that can assess effects on key environmental capitals (biodiversity, soil, water), on-farm practice changes, and long-term resilience strategies. On mitigation, the guide describes indicators to measure the carbon footprint of a project and carbon sequestration potential, including enabling technologies and socio-economic drivers. The guide highlights how project results can inform national and international policy processes, strengthen climate finance mobilisation, and support institutional capacity building.
