ADaptation in Agriculture (LIFE ADA)

Climate change has a direct effect on agricultural productivity and quality, jeopardising profitability of farmers, especially small and medium-sized ones, as well as their ability to survive. Italy in particular is among EU countries that suffers most from economic loss due to extreme weather conditions. 

In this context, the LIFE ADA project's objective is to provide practical support to the agricultural sector and strengthen farmers’ skills to face and endure climate change. In particular, the project aims to implement a public-private partnership between insurers, public administrations, scientific institutes and producer organisations to increase farmers adaptive capacity. The project focuses on three supply chains within the Italian agricultural sector: dairy, wine production, fruit and vegetable. These represent (together) at Italian national level, 40% of the revenue for the whole agricultural sector, almost 20% of farmers, 20% of utilised agricultural area, and 40% of the workforce of the specialised firms.

The project aims to implement its solutions first in a pilot region in Emilia-Romagna and later in Veneto, Tuscany and Lazio, involving up to 6000 farmers

• Transferring knowledge on climatic scenarios together with risk management and adaptive measures to enhance farmers capacity to tackle current and future climate risks;
• Building tools to support farmers decision-making processes in shaping efficient adaptation plans at farm and supply chain levels;
• Framing a coherent policy strategy at regional level to support farmers adaptive planning; and
• Fostering an innovative approach for insurers to build capacity on risk reduction to maintain insurability of farmers in the long-term despite the increase of catastrophic and systemic risks.