India, Feb. 12 -- Climate change is often described as an unfolding crisis for Indian agriculture. Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, declining groundwater levels, and increasing weather extremes have placed unprecedented pressure on smallholder farmers. These risks are real and immediate. Yet, when climate adaptation is framed only through the lens of loss and damage, we risk overlooking a powerful and necessary shift: adaptation can be a pathway to rural prosperity, not just survival.

Across rural India, farmers are already adapting - not in abstract ways, but through practical decisions taken season after season. Where these efforts are supported by the right knowledge, infrastructure, and institutions, adaptation is beginning to ...