For farmers in Nepal, climate change is not an abstract fear, it’s a daily reality. Inconsistent weather, inadequate water resources, rising temperatures and shifting seasons mean that farmers are having to adapt their systems to keep producing, while at the same time meeting the growing population’s demand for food.

Now is a critical time to address the needs of farmers who the World Bank estimates, with others along the agricultural value chain, make up more than 65% of the total population. Mitigating the impacts of climate change could not only increase agricultural production, but also improve livelihoods of this large population.

In order to continue developing strategies to meet these challenges, the International Conference on Climate Change Innovation and Resilience for Sustainable Livelihoods was held earlier this year. Participants from 30 countries engaged in discussions and presentations on topics relevant both to rural families navigating climate change adaptation, and to populations in growing cities around the world.

Presentations included an analysis of regional data, a review of the impacts on food security, and strategies for coping with the effects of a changing climate. Tom Hammett, who represented InnovATE at the conference, gave a presentation highlighting the importance of raising awareness of climate change with technicians and farmers. In order to do that, he explained, “We need to take a closer look at how to incorporate climate change knowledge into school curricula, which could help better educate students and practitioners.”

Hammett is collaborating with the InnovATE project and partners at the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), who signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Virginia Tech in 2013, to host a regional workshop on excellence in agricultural teaching and learning. The proposed workshop will focus on building faculty skills, designing a strategy for a national teaching and learning center, and engaging stakeholders in initial planning for a possible InnovATE scoping assessment to gather more data on the current status of Nepal’s agricultural training and education.

The workshop will be held April 9-12, 2015, in Hetauda, Nepal near the AFU campus.