Enabling climate risk management along agricultural value chains: Insights from the rice value chain in Uganda

The briefing argues that for agricultural value chain investments to be sustainable, climate resilience must be a priority, requiring all actors to perform three core CRM functions: climate risk assessment, adaptive management, and responding to shocks. Using the Ugandan rice sector as an example, it demonstrates that while all actors are exposed to climate hazards like droughts and floods, smallholder farmers are the most vulnerable due to limited assets. The document emphasizes the critical role of service providers—offering climate information, financial services, market data, and resilient infrastructure—in enabling these CRM functions. It concludes by recommending that development agencies integrate CRM into training, strengthen service provider capacities, generate economic evidence for the business case of CRM, and align agricultural policies with systemic risk management.

• Climate change affects all actors in agricultural value chains, but the degree of impact varies based on exposure and the ability to respond. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable because their "incomes and food security are directly dependent on agricultural production," whereas actors further along the chain often have "diversified supply sources" and more assets to buffer shocks.
• The rice value chain in Uganda is highly susceptible to climate change due to the crop's sensitivity to weather. Key hazards in northern and eastern Uganda include "droughts, floods, hail storms and changes in seasonal patterns."
• Building climate-resilient value chains requires all actors to perform three interrelated CRM functions: climate risk assessment (analyzing current and future risks), adaptive management (iterative learning and adjusting activities), and responding to shocks (short-term coping actions).
• Service providers are essential for enabling CRM. Core necessary services include climate information services for forecasting and early warnings, financial services (credit, savings, insurance) to provide buffers and enable innovation, market information systems for diversification, and climate-resilient infrastructure such as roads and storage.
• Development agencies face several barriers to implementing CRM, including limited access to climate risk information, uncertainty in projections, lack of human capacity for risk analysis, and a "Lack of policy direction to provide incentives for CRM."

APA

Daz, A., & Dekens, J. (2016). Enabling climate risk management along agricultural value chains: Insights from the rice value chain in Uganda. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/crm-insights-from-rice-value-chain-uganda.pdf

Chicago

Daz, Angie, and Julie Dekens. Enabling climate risk management along agricultural value chains: Insights from the rice value chain in Uganda. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2016. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/crm-insights-from-rice-value-chain-uganda.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Daz |first1=Angie |last2=Dekens |first2=Julie |title=Enabling climate risk management along agricultural value chains: Insights from the rice value chain in Uganda |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=June 2016 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/crm-insights-from-rice-value-chain-uganda.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{daz2016enabling, author = {Daz, Angie and Dekens, Julie}, title = {{Enabling climate risk management along agricultural value chains: Insights from the rice value chain in Uganda}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2016}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/crm-insights-from-rice-value-chain-uganda.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }