In light of ever more extreme weather events and growing climate impacts, companies in the agricultural space in Latin America and the Caribbean must act now to future-proof their businesses. Climate risks are context-specific, making it imperative to assess them based on each company’s unique characteristics, such as its location, products, value chain position, and production methods. 

Doubling down on its commitment to support the region on its climate adaptation journey, IDB Invest leverages the power of data to help clients understand risk and to offer priority technical assistance and finance for adaptation measures.

Connecting the dots to confront the climate crisis

Assessing impacts based on climate change scenarios on a company’s operations is often cumbersome, time-consuming, and resource-intensive; it can be daunting to get started. That is why IDB Invest has leveraged advances in technology to create a new tool: AGRIADAPT.

Based on a suite of cutting-edge data, AGRIADAPT breaks down climate-related impacts to agribusiness operations, such as alterations in crop growth cycles, changes in productivity, damages to facilities, or logistics and business disruptions.

It generates tailored reports for crops and livestock production, as well as for facilities and transportation routes. It also provides site-specific insights into climate impact and prioritizes adaptation measures.

The tool covers the entire territory of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is based on a suite of cutting-edge data, covering the latest global climate models (CMIP6), crop data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and over 23,000 datasets and 260 scientific journal articles.

Climate reports leverage Geographical Information System technology to incorporate site-specific input, offering insights into climate-related impacts for 2030, 2050, and 2080, with projections for various plausible futures.

Empowering climate-smart decision making through data

The use cases are plentiful: AGRIADAPT offers both detailed reports for each of the company’s facilities and a summary dashboard for data analysis and management. These outputs allow clients to understand climate vulnerabilities and identify adaptation measures. They also help IDB Invest prioritize technical assistance for adaptation.

The crops module provides crop-specific data for different irrigation methods on both potential changes in productivity and changes in the growth cycle. These insights can inform company strategy and support risk management.

Figure 1: Illustrative change in growth cycle for different irrigation methods and considering changes from the baseline due to climate change

Climate change also escalates the prevalence of pests and diseases. That is why the AGRIDADAPT crop module shows the projected chemical application rates of the 20 most common chemicals as an indicative measure of pest pressure.

Additionally, segments of the AGRIADAPT tool, such as the natural hazard exposure module (depicted in Figure 2) and the loss and damage estimations due to facility damage and business interruptions, are sector-agnostic.

They can be used, for instance, to understand the exposure of a manufacturing operation to hydrometeorological hazards, both based on historic data and climate change scenarios.

Figure 2: Example of climate change exposure data output

IDB Invest is committed to empowering clients on their resilience journey. Evidence-based and data-informed decision-making is a critical step in navigating climate change and, ultimately, implementing adaptation measures on the ground.

By offering insights, technical assistance, innovative financial solutions, and leveraging the power of cutting-edge data IDB Invest looks forward to playing its part in strengthening the resilience of businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean.