Debt, Agriculture and Climate Vulnerability Across the Global South

This project investigates the interactions between two of the greatest stresses confronting rural populations in the 21st century: debt and climate change. Agriculture is one of the industries most exposed to climate change while credit and debt are an integral part of most agricultural economies by virtue of the seasonality and unpredictability of agricultural production. We have little systematic knowledge, however, about how these stresses interact. There is existing descriptive work in different contexts highlighting the role of indebtedness in creating or exacerbating climate vulnerabilities, but relatively little work systematically compares the role of indebtedness in shaping exposures to climate hazards across contexts. Equally, the broader and longstanding interplay of debt relations with ecological hazards in organizing agrarian and informal economies is often underexamined.

This project brings together a diverse interdisciplinary team of scholars at Warwick, UofT and nearby institutions to develop a comparative, historical and systematic analysis of the role of debt relations in shaping climate vulnerabilities across contexts.

• Warwick PI: Dr Nicolas BernardsLink opens in a new window

• U of T PI: Dr Ryan IsaksonLink opens in a new window