A web-based, gridded Atlas of multi-hazard, multi-species climate risks and technology options to support adaptation planning in South Asian Agriculture

• The paper describes the Atlas for Climate Adaptation in South Asian Agriculture (ACASA) for 15 crops and 6 livestock species. • It provides locally validated climate hazards and adaptation options for current and future climate scenarios at 0.05°. • Reveals a complex trajectory of hazard redistribution and future adaptation needs. • Supports linking climate hazards with viable technologies with a coherent structure. • The open-access database enables agencies to target crop and livestock risks with location-specific actions. South Asian agriculture faces escalating food security challenges, with smallholder farmers increasingly exposed to erratic rainfall, heat extremes, and recurrent climate shocks. Yet adaptation planning remains hindered by fragmented, low-resolution generic data and limited scientific validation of climate risk assessments. This paper presents the Atlas of Climate Adaptation in South Asian Agriculture (ACASA), developed to address this critical gap by generating an open, high-resolution (0.05° × 0.05°) climate-risk database for 15 major crops and 6 livestock species that together account for more than 80% of the region’s agricultural GDP. The cloud-based database provides a systematic hierarchical structure that calculates climatic hazards using historical and bias-corrected ISIMIP data for 2050 and 2080 climate scenarios, local soil and agronomic information, exposure and vulnerability indicators, and tailored agronomic adaptation options. The example results from the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) indicate that under SSP5-8.5, more than 8.25 Mha of the IGP’s rice area and 2 million cattle are projected to be exposed to the very-high hazard category in 2080. Since IGP is South Asia’s central food-producing region, it underscores the need for species-specific solutions and improved, coordinated regional action. By making it openly accessible through a cloud platform, this database enables stakeholders to design and target robust adaptation strategies for practical implications. One conceptual study, being developed in collaboration with stakeholders in Nepal, is presented here to illustrate the spectrum of ACASA to inform decision-making in agriculture.