For decades, farmer Mehmet Kabak has cultivated cotton on his drought-prone land in western Türkiye. This year, however, he is switching to wheat and sunflower, partly because these crops use less water and are thus less expensive to produce.

Kabak is one of many farmers worldwide forced to find their own way to cope with a changing climate, rather than waiting for countries to settle long-standing arguments at annual climate talks over who should finance adaptation.

Agriculture accounts for around 5% of Türkiye's economic output. It also consumes 79% of the country's water, almost half of which is lost because of inefficient infrastructure and irrigation, the government has said.

As the next round of climate talks begins ​at COP31 in Antalya on the Mediterranean coast, 59-year-old Kabak, who farms 900 decares (about 220 acres) ​in ⁠Söke, hundreds of kilometers to the west, complained of higher irrigation costs "even though our harvest is damaged."

Cotton output shrinks

Türkiye was the world's eighth-largest cotton producer, according to 2023 data from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), but its overall seed cotton output is expected to fall 38% year-over-year to 1.2 million metric tons in 2026, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Drought and increased costs have led farmers in the Söke region to shrink cotton acreage by around 60% to around 120,000 decares in 2026, a local farming group said.

More than 30 farmers, lenders, companies and nonprofit organizations told Reuters in interviews that the sector needed more technical support and help gaining access to finance.

For agriculture, ⁠water ⁠is the most pressing adaptation issue.

Last year, Türkiye suffered the worst drought in more than 50 years. Rainfall was 27% below the long-term average. Dam levels have recovered to an extent, government data showed, but analysts say the reprieve is likely to be temporary.

Reuters analysis of data from the WWF and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy showed water use in Türkiye's cotton-producing basins needs to fall 25% to 60% to sustain healthy ecosystems.

Existing infrastructure is inefficient. Water drawn from dams and rivers often arrives unfiltered, clogging drip hoses before infrastructure to clean it is built.

But farmers are reluctant to invest for a variety of reasons.

In some cases, switching to newer systems can lead to an initial drop in yield that farmers may struggle to absorb. In addition, many work on rented land, meaning they are reluctant to invest, industry representatives said.

State, private sector offer support

Türkiye said in October, when it laid out ⁠next year's budget, the amount set aside for land and water resources management would rise 40.5%, with TL 174 billion ($3.5 billion) earmarked for agricultural irrigation investments.

The Agriculture Ministry told Reuters further support would be needed to supplement that, including from the private sector.

Türkiye's largest private lender Işbank has opened 56 specialist agricultural branches and offers financing for drip and sprinkler irrigation with repayments ​tied to harvest cycles.

Şekerbank, which has a history of supporting farmers, says around a quarter of loans made under its sustainable-finance framework in the first nine months ​of 2026 went to agricultural water management and climate adaptation.

A lack of equity or collateral and the inability of some farmers to repay the loans, however, have limited the amount of help the private sector can deliver. Many farmers also have to pay upfront and get reimbursed later, ⁠if conditions are met.

"That ‌makes it very ‌difficult for them," said Liam Chicca, country director for Türkiye at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The fund, which ⁠has invested $850 million (about TL 42.6 billion) in the country since 1982, estimates that between 5% and 10% of Turkish farmers have virtually ‌no capacity to finance major investments themselves.

For Türkiye, and others, failure to adapt could cost more than acting now.

World Bank analysis in 2022 estimated a 10% reduction in water supply could ​cost Türkiye 6% of gross domestic product (GDP), or about $50 billion because of ⁠the impact on agriculture.

Apart from the planned budget increase, the government has said private companies could help more by ⁠adopting water-efficiency certification and using green-finance instruments to fund adaptation, an approach it hopes to advance at COP31.

Those monitoring progress are keen that whatever is proposed amounts to ⁠more than the kind of nonbinding ​pledges that governments have made at previous U.N. conferences without delivering concrete change.