The phenomenon of climate change poses a serious threat to agricultural production and, therefore, to the lives and livelihoods of the hundreds of millions who are dependent on agriculture. Adaptation to the increased variability in weather patterns requires the adoption of ecological farming practices which are climate-resilient as well as productive. This paper looks at how ecological agriculture, by building healthy soils, cultivating biological diversity and improving water harvesting and management, can strengthen farmers’ capacity to adapt to climate change. Accordingly, the authors call for a reorientation of policy, funding and research priorities from the dominant industrial agriculture model to ecological agriculture. At the same time, recourse to carbon markets to finance adaptation efforts through trade in soil carbon credits is rejected as an unsustainable, wrong-headed approach to meeting the climate challenge. Instead, facing the vagaries of climate change demands a concerted effort by governments, multilateral agencies, researchers and farmers to support the transition to ecological agriculture. Towards this end, this paper outlines a roadmap of measures for promoting truly climate-resilient farming systems.