Asia is highly exposed to climate-driven food insecurity, yet adaptation finance flows to the region remain inadequate relative to the scale of its exposure and needs.
The region is home to an estimated 292 million people who are facing chronic hunger in 2025 (FAO et al. 2026b). Among children under five, Asia accounts for a large portion of the global burden, with a wasting rate of 8.9 percent, against the 6.7 percent global average, and a stunting rate of 21.8 percent, heavily driven by South Asia (Global Nutrition Report 2026).
Climate change is accelerating these pressures on food security, reducing food production, undermining livelihoods, increasing poverty, driving migration, and weakening the resilience of rural communities. Without increased investment in adaptation, these risks will continue to grow.
Climate Change Is Placing Asia's Food Systems under Growing Pressure
Over the last few years, record-breaking floods, storms, and droughts have hit the region. China's Yangtze River basin—which produces about 70 percent of the country's rice—was hit by severe floods in 2020 (Wang et al. 2022) and then experienced historic drought conditions just two years later (Yu et al. 2024). Pakistan's 2022 floods left a third of the country under water and affected 33 million people (UN Pakistan 2022). In 2024, tropical cyclone Yagi destroyed crops in Viet Nam and southern China (UN Viet Nam 2024). In late 2025, a wave of cyclones and monsoon rains triggered catastrophic flooding and landslides across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand (OCHA 2025a). Overall, these and other disasters have contributed to declines in food production, food shortages, and high food prices, heightening food insecurity, and increasing pressure on livelihoods.
These pressures are expected to intensify. The World Meteorological Organization finds that Asia is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average. Oceans are warming, glaciers are retreating, and extreme heat, drought, and flooding are becoming more frequent. Sea-level rise is encroaching on fertile deltas and coastal food production areas (WMO 2025). The implications for food production are severe. For example, studies of tropical rice systems have found that every 1°C rise in average nighttime temperatures during the dry season corresponds with a 10 percent yield loss (Peng et al. 2004). Yields decline even further when seawater intrusion, flooding, and storm damage are layered on top (Schneider and Asch 2020).
Asia's food systems are especially vulnerable due to their producer demographics. The region is home to nearly three-quarters of the world's smallholder farmers, who contribute about 60 percent of its agricultural production (Joshi 2024). Most rely on rainfed agriculture, lack crop insurance, and have little capital to absorb extreme weather damage (Raghavan et al. 2019; ASEAN 2025a, ASEAN 2025b). A single shock can trigger severe income loss, push households into hunger and poverty, drive migration that erodes farming communities and over time erode community resilience (Upadhyay 2024; Kalantari et al. 2024).
Fisherfolk face the same pressures. In parts of Asia, aquatic foods provide up to 50 percent of dietary protein (FAO 2022c). An estimated 52.7 million people in Asia were employed in the primary fisheries and aquaculture sector—representing 85 percent of the world total (FAO 2024b). Now, warming seas and acidification, along with increasing levels of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, are shrinking fish stocks. Storms are making fishing more dangerous and less viable. At the same time, inland waters are drying up or becoming more polluted (FAO 2024b). The livelihoods of coastal communities and the protein security of millions are increasingly precarious.
These impacts on production are coupled with food price inflation. In Asia, the median food price inflation rose from 1.9 percent in February 2019 to a peak of 7.9 percent in May 2022 (FAOSTAT 2026). Food inflation affects low-income households the most, which spend 40 to 60 percent of their income on food (UN ESCAP 2024). Persistent food inflation can erode trust in public institutions and increase the risk of social unrest, particularly where governments struggle to cushion vulnerable households. Sri Lanka's 2022 economic crisis demonstrated how rising food prices and shortages can reinforce wider economic grievances and contribute to widespread public unrest (OHCHR 2022).
The Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Surveys, published by the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, found that seven in ten Southeast Asians experience some form of food insecurity— up from six in ten in 2023 (Figure 1) (Seah et al. 2024). The survey also found that food insecurity does not only affect poorer households; one in ten respondents in the highest-income group also reported experiencing frequent food insecurity.
‶Without sustained investment, governments are left 'firefighting' food crises ...″
Despite these impacts on food security, the response to this accelerating crisis is inadequate. Globally, less than half of one percent of the finance farmers need for climate adaptation is being delivered (Bakhtary and Rodezna 2025). In South and Southeast Asia alone, the annual funding gap for agricultural adaptation is US$153 billion (CIIP 2026). This is due, in part, to the lack of government investment. For example, all Southeast Asian countries, except for Thailand, consistently spend less than 10 percent of their national budgets on agriculture (Ludher and Teng 2025), even as climate shocks become more frequent.
Without sustained investment, governments are left "firefighting" food crises instead of reducing future security risks through long-term adaptation. The cost of inaction is rising faster than the cost of adaptation. It is estimated that every US$1 invested in resilience today can generate up to US$10.50 in avoided disaster losses and economic benefits in the future (Brandon et al. 2025). Investments in climate adaptation are therefore not only an investment in food security, but also in regional resilience and long-term stability.
Adaptation Is an Investment in Food Security and Regional Resilience
Making production systems more resilient and adaptable will require funding to scale climate-resilient crop and aquaculture varieties, regenerative production models, applied R&D, and rural infrastructure that reduces post-harvest losses. This is where philanthropic capital and development finance institutions can co-invest most effectively, de-risking technology transfer to smallholders.
Crop and weather-index insurance, smallholder credit, and social safety net programs for both rural and urban poor also need to be brought to scale. Blended finance can mobilize private capital, but it must be matched by sustained government budget commitments.
Closing the gap will take more finance— but it will also require better coordination. A major obstacle is the fragmented governance of food security and climate resilience. Several regional bodies pursue similar objectives yet often work in parallel. Greater regional coordination could improve information sharing, emergency response, regional trade, and the deployment of adaptation measures. It would also ease pressure on funding, for example by having harmonized early warning systems, a common negotiating position on food-trade barriers, and blended finance instruments that complement rather than compete with one another for the same donors.
Adaptation is no longer simply an environmental issue. It is an investment in food security, livelihoods, and regional stability. Asia's experience demonstrates that closing the adaptation gap will be essential not only to protect food systems but also to prevent climate-related food insecurity from becoming a broader security challenge across the region.