Finance for Resilience

An Overview of Risk Mitigation in Agricultural Systems for Farms, Lenders, and Governments

Anna Aspenson, Sharlene Brown, Christi Electris, Jaime Silverstein

February, 2024

Investments to build resilience in agriculture have not kept pace with the risks associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, and other global disruptions. Disasters such as floods, drought, wildfires, and hurricanes could cost the U.S. federal budget approximately $2 trillion each year, according to an assessment from the White House.

Though the cost of future disruptions (e.g., from natural disasters, crop loss, input price shocks) are difficult to predict, research demonstrates that the cost of future losses and disasters are likely much higher than the costs of transitioning to resilient agricultural practices. 

This report explores major on-farm, off-farm, and systemic risks that the agricultural industry faces and how finance can increase the resilience of those systems while providing other benefits.

This report was developed in collaboration with Meridian Institute. 

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