Smallholder farmers are the foundation of food production across the Pacific, yet they remain among the most vulnerable to the accelerating impacts of climate change. Rising sea levels, shifting rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events threaten
agricultural livelihoods and food security. Despite their importance, smallholder farmers face barriers in accessing financial, technical, and institutional support to increase their adaptive capacity.
Recent global evidence highlights the scale of this challenge. New analysis by Climate Focus for Family Farmers for Climate Action (FFCA) estimates that small-scale farmers require US$443 billion per year in adaptation finance, yet only 0.36% of this need is currently being met. In the Pacific, farmers receive just US$0 to 0.01 billion annually, despite an estimated minimum need of US$80 million, a stark illustration of the region’s widening adaptation financing gap. This significant underfunding leaves farmers increasingly exposed to climate shocks.
This white paper, developed in partnership with Pacific Farmer Organizations (PFO), examines how smallholder farmers are currently being supported in adapting to climate change in Fiji and Tonga, the role of Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) in enhancing farmers’ adaptive capacity, the systemic barriers that limit farmers’ access to support, and the factors that enable or constrain
political support of smallholder farmers’ needs.
Building on these observations, the following section summarizes the key findings that consistently emerged across semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), surveys, and field observations with a sample of primarily FO-affiliated farmers and key
stakeholders. The data provides rich insights into how current systems are functioning on the ground.
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