As climate change threatens India’s food security, adaptation in the agriculture sector is becoming increasingly important. However, for too long, adaptation has been characterized by individual efforts and by small, time-bound pilot projects. Although these projects often have a strong grassroots focus, their capacity to benefit larger populations and to contribute to policy reform is limited (Reid and Huq 2014).

For too long, climate change adaptation has been characterized by individual efforts within small pilot projects. It is becoming increasingly clear that such limited, one-off projects do not match the complex challenges the world faces as the impacts of climate change mount. Adaptation activities must become standard practice before climate-vulnerable development pathways are entrenched. The World Resources Institute (WRI) seeks to contribute to this important shift through this report, “Scaling Success: Lessons from Adaptation Pilots in the Rainfed Regions of India.” Drawing on the experiences of twenty-one adaptation projects from this region, the report suggests solutions to a key challenge—how to bring efforts to scale without neglecting the many location-specific factors (environmental, social, economic, and political) that shape climate risk.