CGIAR Initiative: Securing the Food Systems of Asian Mega-Deltas for Climate and Livelihood Resilience <p class="ql-align-justify">Home to 177 million people – 36% of them poor&nbsp;–&nbsp;the densely populated Asian Mega Deltas are biodiverse,&nbsp;fertile&nbsp;and productive food baskets dominated by rice, fisheries and aquaculture that also support millions beyond the deltas. Asian Mega Deltas are the world´s most important rice-growing areas. In Vietnam, 52% of rice&nbsp;(and 95% of exported rice), 60% of fruits and 70% of seafood, the world’s major staple foods, are produced in the Mekong Delta. The Ayeyarwady Mega-Delta is where Myanmar grows&nbsp;about&nbsp;70% of its rice and aquaculture. Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal is known as the Green Delta because it is one of the most fertile regions in the world.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">However, delta food systems are reaching a significant tipping point. At the same time that governments look to deltas to achieve national development goals for food security,&nbsp;nutrition&nbsp;and poverty alleviation, the tens of millions of small-scale producers who they hope will achieve this also face grave risks from the impacts of climate change, aggravated by the effects of inappropriate development pathways. Recent data&nbsp;reveals that the Asian Mega Deltas are likely to be hit by serious impacts of climate change, including more frequent and more intense floods, salinization, water shortages and climate extremes that will slow down economic growth, further erode food security, and trigger new poverty traps and emerging hotspots of hunger.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">As an example, saltwater intrusion, related to rising sea levels, is becoming progressively more severe and affecting increasing areas of crop production. The GBM Delta is already impacted by sea level rise, and saltwater intrusion has also been reported to impact agricultural productivity. Furthermore, in 2019–20, saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta resulted in estimated production losses of about 460,000 hectares. These and other stresses have led to an annual loss of GDP of 6% in Southeast Asia&nbsp;–&nbsp;over twice the global&nbsp;average. They could severely cripple the vital economic activities linked to these systems.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The challenge addressed by the AMD Initiative is to remove system barriers at community, national and regional levels to facilitate the scaling of existing/emerging technologies and practices for transforming food systems towards greater climate resilience.&nbsp;This is the underlying precept of One CGIAR’s Securing<strong><em>&nbsp;the Food Systems of the Asian Mega-Deltas for Climate and Livelihood Resilience (AMD)</em></strong>&nbsp;Initiative, which aims to support the creation of resilient, inclusive, and productive deltas. At the same time, transformed food systems need to provide pathways out of poverty for millions, as they have done previously in certain parts of the Asian Mega-Deltas. As accelerated change is risky, the AMD&nbsp;Initiative&nbsp;also addresses challenges to nutrition security, financial investment, gender equity and social inclusion, and the natural resources on which the resilience of the entire system depends. It does so by building strong policy-science partnerships working with diverse actors and aligning them towards common goals.&nbsp;</p>