In the Mediterranean, no Climate-Smart Agriculture without Climate-Smart Policies

The latest IPCC report indicates that in the Mediterranean, global warming already has and will have the impacts of reducing agricultural outputs, increasing extreme risks (droughts, heatwaves…) and significantly intensifying evapotranspiration: this means, for example, that there is a greater need for water for plants, including in irrigated systems, whereas the groundwater levels and river flows are declining in an erratic manner. In order to meet the challenges of mitigation and, especially, climate change adaptation, Mediterranean agriculture needs to undergo a transformation. Actors in the field are already in the process of addressing this challenge. However, it cannot be fully addressed without an adjustment of public agricultural policies.