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Through the investment projects that it supports, IFAD is committed to aligning agricultural investments to environmental priorities identified within countries’ INDCs. Through its investment activities, IFAD has already begun supporting implementation of the INDCs on the ground. By innovatively integrating climate-smart solutions and technologies into the agricultural development programmes it finances, IFAD is investing in rural people to build their resilience to climate change. IFAD’s work in Djibouti is a case in point. The programme supports the government’s stated policy of training more local fishers in sustainable fishing methods to conserve fish resources.IFAD’S ADAPTATION FOR SMALLHOLDER AGRICULTURE PROGRAMME (ASAP)A key global initiative for IFAD is its Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme, or ASAP. This programme, which was launched in 2012, has become the world’s largest adaptation fund for smallholder farmers in developing countries. The overall target for ASAP is to reach 8 million smallholder farmers by 2020 and increase their climate resilience. So far, ASAP has served as the main instrument for integrating climate resilience into IFAD’s development portfolio. For example, the Climate Adaptation and Livelihood Protection (CALIP) Project in Bangladesh targets poverty alleviation in the Haor Basin, a coastal region with low agricultural productivity that is vulnerable to flash floods and monsoons.CALIP focuses on building low-cost, robust village protection infrastructure that can withstand high-intensity wave action. The project also invests in developing a Flash Flood Early Warning System for saving Boro rice, which is the main crop cultivated both in protected and non-protected areas. Increasingly, IFAD-supported projects are taking climate-related threats such as storms, droughts, floods, sea-level rise and temperature extremes into account. Tools have been developed to systematically analyse climate hazards and their ‘hot spots’. These include geographic information systems (GIS) and earth observation systems to better target landscapes affected by food security, environmental degradation and climate change issues. This, in turn, helps to optimize the specification, targeting, and siting of climate-sensitive investments. A good example is the IFAD investment programme in Kyrgyzstan, where climate risk analysis has influenced the location and standards of rural roads, following an analysis of current and future flash-flood risks. An important element in developing innovative strategies is to boost the capabilities of farmer-based organizations to manage climate risks. In many countries, knowledge of historical climate patterns is no longer sufficient to manage such risks. The rains no longer come when expected, extreme events are creating more damage, and new risks such as pest infestations are causing new types of problems. Examples from IFAD programmes include the development of a salinity monitoring system in Vietnam, a stronger weather station network in Mozambique, and more robust building codes for post-harvest processing and storage facilities in Rwanda. Photo Credit: UN Photo/P SudhakaranPictured: Melsanakuppam, IndiaAGRICULTURE 077