FAO Warns El Niño Impacts Magnified by Hotter World
FAO Director Kaveh Zahedi says El Niño's effects on food systems will intensify as global temperatures start from a higher baseline.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Agriculture
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FAO Director Kaveh Zahedi warned that El Niño impacts will be magnified by a hotter world, with extreme heat, droughts and floods expected to undermine agriculture and food production. Only about 5 percent of climate-tagged development finance goes to productive agriculture sectors.
Why it matters
Because global temperatures start from a higher point, the natural El Niño cycle is expected to make farm food production more difficult and much less predictable. Investment in agriculture and food systems climate finance is declining rather than rising, leaving farmers more exposed.
About 5 percent of climate-tagged development finance goes to productive sectors including agriculture, crops, fisheries, forestry and livestock. The extraction does not provide a comparator period or total finance volume against which this share is measured.
The players
Kaveh Zahedi
Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, who warned that El Niño impacts will be magnified by a hotter world.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
United Nations agency headquartered in Rome that works to improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries and to support food security worldwide.
The details
FAO says it is helping countries make agriculture more sustainable, resilient and inclusive, including providing early warning information that lets farmers adjust what they plant and when they sow. Drought-resilient and flood-resilient seed varieties are also being developed to help crops cope with extreme weather.
Timeline
30 October 2026: Kaveh Zahedi interview in Rome recorded.
COP 31: Upcoming climate conference FAO has high expectations for.
Market Landscape
FAO says countries are beginning to understand that agriculture and food systems are central to the climate agenda, but climate finance flows to productive sectors remain at about 5 percent. FAO's high expectations for COP 31 frame agriculture as a test of whether that finance gap narrows at the next major climate conference.
Farmers face more difficult and less predictable growing seasons as El Niño effects intensify on top of higher baseline temperatures. Early warning information from FAO can help growers decide what to plant and when to sow.
The takeaway
Climate finance is currently reaching productive agriculture sectors at only about 5 percent, so closing that gap is central to protecting food production as temperatures rise. Readers tracking food prices and supply should watch how COP 31 treats agriculture financing.
What happens next
FAO has high expectations for COP 31, the upcoming climate conference where agriculture and food systems financing is expected to be addressed.
Further reading
For more on how climate shocks are reshaping farm production, explore Agriculture coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by UN Photo.
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