Generations of Armenian apricot growers have relied on snowmelt from the Caucasus mountains to irrigate their small family orchards that dot the country’s fertile valleys. But now, as climate change disrupts weather patterns and the snowpack retreats, farmer livelihoods are becoming imperiled at an unprecedented rate.

“Armenia is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change,” said Allison M. Chatrchyan, senior research associate in the Department of Global Development. “Temperatures there are rising more than the global average, drought is becoming more widespread and freeze risk is intensifying. Climate change is hitting farmers hard, and it’s affecting rural societies in untold ways.”

Read the full article in the Cornell Chronicle