Preparing for El Niño: Lessons from IFAD investments

IFAD warns that a near-record El Niño event could peak between October 2026 and January 2027, disrupt harvests and push at least 49 million people into food insecurity by the end of 2027. Eleven countries, home to 282 million rural people, rank among those most exposed to both drought and increased fertilizer costs. The resource presents anticipatory action and resilience measures used in IFAD-supported projects: climate information services and drought insurance linked to satellite data; stress-tolerant crop varieties; solar irrigation and efficient water use; diversification of crops, income and inputs; composting and organic soil management; and the bundling of inputs, finance and markets. Documented results include automatic payments to nearly 60,000 insured farmers in Kenya, yield increases of almost 30 per cent from drought-tolerant rice in Nepal, a 60 per cent reduction in seasonal pumping costs through solar irrigation in Bangladesh, and income increases for 76 per cent of participating households in an Indonesian project.