How should I start studying about 'successful transitions in post-drought economies'?
There isn't a lot written on this yet. A search of FAO, UNESCO, World Bank and Asia Development Bank should turn up answers for specific regions. Keep in mind that climatic modelling is generally quite accurate for temperature, but woefully inaccurate in terms of regional water resources assessment. One should rely as much upon instrumental evidence-based historic trends as upon global climatic models and their down-scaled derivatives. In terms of temperature the important issue is to develop higher temperature tolerant crop cultivars, and maybe totally new crops. For example, fruit orchards that require so many days of frost will not do well under global warming, but new genetically engineered crops might do spectacularly better. The main issue is increased crop-water demand combined with diminishing irrigation water availability. In this, improving the irrigation efficiency is crucial, and requires massive reforms in almost every country. Apart from rising sea level, efficient irrigation combined with an upgrade to modern farming practices is by far the most important climate change adaptation.