Climate Change and Food Security

Climate Change and Food Security

Author: David B. Lobell

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-12-21

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9048129524

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Roughly a billion people around the world continue to live in state of chronic hunger and food insecurity. Unfortunately, efforts to improve their livelihoods must now unfold in the context of a rapidly changing climate, in which warming temperatures and changing rainfall regimes could threaten the basic productivity of the agricultural systems on which most of the world’s poor directly depend. But whether climate change represents a minor impediment or an existential threat to development is an area of substantial controversy, with different conclusions wrought from different methodologies and based on different data. This book aims to resolve some of the controversy by exploring and comparing the different methodologies and data that scientists use to understand climate’s effects on food security. In explains the nature of the climate threat, the ways in which crops and farmers might respond, and the potential role for public and private investment to help agriculture adapt to a warmer world. This broader understanding should prove useful to both scientists charged with quantifying climate threats, and policy-makers responsible for crucial decisions about how to respond. The book is especially suitable as a companion to an interdisciplinary undergraduate or graduate level class.


Climate Change and Agricultural Ecosystems

Climate Change and Agricultural Ecosystems

Author: Krishna Kumar Choudhary

Publisher: Woodhead Publishing

Published: 2019-05-04

Total Pages: 486

ISBN-13: 0128175222

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Climate Change and Agricultural Ecosystems explains the causative factors of climate change related to agriculture, soil and plants, and discusses the relevant resulting mitigation process. Agricultural ecosystems include factors from the surrounding areas where agriculture experiences direct or indirect interaction with the plants, animals, and microbes present. Changes in climatic conditions influence all the factors of agricultural ecosystems, which can potentially adversely affect their productivity. This book summarizes the different aspects of vulnerability, adaptation, and amelioration of climate change in respect to plants, crops, soil, and microbes for the sustainability of the agricultural sector and, ultimately, food security for the future. It also focuses on the utilization of information technology for the sustainability of the agricultural sector along with the capacity and adaptability of agricultural societies under climate change. Climate Change and Agricultural Ecosystems incorporates both theoretical and practical aspects, and serves as base line information for future research. This book is a valuable resource for those working in environmental sciences, soil sciences, agricultural microbiology, plant pathology, and agronomy. - Covers the role of chemicals fertilizers, environmental deposition, and xenobiotics in climate change - Discusses the impact of climate change on plants, soil, microflora, and agricultural ecosystems - Explores the mitigation of climate change by sustainable methods - Presents the role of computational modelling in climate change mitigation


Improving Modeling Tools to Assess Climate Change Effects on Crop Response

Improving Modeling Tools to Assess Climate Change Effects on Crop Response

Author: Jerry L. Hatfield

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-01-22

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0891183515

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Crop model intercomparison and improvement are required to advance understanding of the impact of future climate change on crop growth and yield. The initial efforts undertaken in the Agriculture Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) led to several observations where crop models were not adequately simulating growth and development. These studies revealed where enhanced efforts should be undertaken in experimental data to quantify the carbon dioxide × temperature × water interactions in plant growth and yield. International leaders in this area held a symposium at the 2013 ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Annual Meeting to discuss this topic. This volume in the Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling series presents experimental observations across crops and simulation modeling outcomes and addresses future challenges in improving crop simulation models. IN PRESS! This book is being published according to the “Just Published” model, with more chapters to be published online as they are completed.


Looking Beyond the Horizon

Looking Beyond the Horizon

Author: William R. Sutton

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2013-04-04

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0821397699

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The risks and opportunities of climate change for agriculture can be effectively dealt only by aligning policies, developing institutional capabilities, and investing in infrastructure and farms, as per the experiences of Albania, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, and Uzbekistan.


Climate Change Impact and Adaptation in Agricultural Systems

Climate Change Impact and Adaptation in Agricultural Systems

Author: Jurg Fuhrer

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2014-06-18

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 178064289X

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The focus of this book is future global climate change and its implications for agricultural systems which are the main sources of agricultural goods and services provided to society. These systems are either based on crop or livestock production, or on combinations of the two, with characteristics that differ between regions and between levels of management intensity. In turn, they also differ in their sensitivity to projected future changes in climate, and improvements to increase climate-resilience need to be tailored to the specific needs of each system. The book will bring together a series of chapters that provide scientific insights to possible implications of projected climate changes for different important types of crop and livestock systems, and a discussion of options for adaptive and mitigative management.


Handbook of Climate Change and Agroecosystems

Handbook of Climate Change and Agroecosystems

Author: Daniel Hillel

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 1848166559

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The portending process of climate change, induced by the anthropogenic accumulations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, is likely to generate effects that will cascade through the biosphere, impacting all life on earth and bearing upon human endeavors. Of special concern is the potential effect on agriculture and global food security. Anticipating these effects demands that scientists widen their field of vision and cooperate across disciplines to encompass increasingly complex interactions. Trans-disciplinary cooperation should aim to generate effective responses to the portending changes, including actions to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases and to adapt to those climate changes that cannot be avoided. This handbook presents an exposition of current research on the impacts, adaptation, and mitigation of climate change in relation to agroecosystems. It is offered as the first volume in what is intended to be an ongoing series dedicated to elucidating the interactions of climate change with a broad range of sectors and systems, and to developing and spurring effective responses to this global challenge. As the collective scientific and practical knowledge of the processes and responses involved continues to grow, future volumes in the series will address important aspects of the topic periodically over the coming years.


Agricultural Dimensions of Global Climate Change

Agricultural Dimensions of Global Climate Change

Author: Harry Kaiser

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 1993-09-01

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780963403032

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This important book, written by recognized leaders in their fields, discusses agricultural dimensions of global climate change. Research and policy issues are covered and a multidisciplinary view of global climate change and agriculture is presented. Major sections cover the contribution of agriculture to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (including an investigation as to whether monitoring and verification of such emissions would work) and the impact of global climate change on agriculture. The book examines such important issues as global food availability, distributional effects between developing and developed countries, agricultural adaptation possibilities, and whether CO2 enrichment will benefit agriculture. A unique feature of this publication is that it addresses communication difficulties between researchers and policy makers and suggests solutions.


Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States

Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States

Author: U. S. Department Agriculture

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-04-19

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9781511791038

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Agriculture in the United States produces approximately $300 billion a year in commodities with livestock accounting for roughly half the value. Production of these commodities is vulnerable to climate change through the direct (i.e., abiotic) effects of changing climate conditions on crop and livestock development and yield (e.g., changes in temperature or precipitation), as well as through the indirect (i.e., biotic) effects arising from changes in the severity of pest pressures, availability of pollination services, and performance of other ecosystem services that affect agricultural productivity. Thus, U.S. agriculture exists as a complex web of interactions between agricultural productivity, ecosystem services, and climate change. Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to U.S. agriculture because of the sensitivity of agricultural productivity and costs to changing climate conditions. Adaptive action offers the potential to manage the effects of climate change by altering patterns of agricultural activity to capitalize on emerging opportunities while minimizing the costs associated with negative effects. The aggregate effects of climate change will ultimately depend on a complex web of adaptive responses to local climate stressors. These adaptive responses may range from farmers adjusting planting patterns and soil management practices in response to more variable weather patterns, to seed producers investing in the development of drought-tolerant varieties, to increased demand for Federal risk management programs, to adjustments in international trade as nations respond to food security concerns. Potential adaptive behavior can occur at multiple levels in a highly diverse international agricultural system including production, consumption, education, research, services, and governance. Understanding the complexity of such interactions is critical for developing effective adaptive strategies.


Looking Beyond the Horizon

Looking Beyond the Horizon

Author: William R. Sutton

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2013-04-04

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 0821397680

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Agriculture is one of the most climate-sensitive of all economic sectors. In many countries, such as the four examined in Looking Beyond the Horizon, the risks of climate change are an immediate and fundamental problem because the majority of the rural population depends either directly or indirectly on agriculture for its livelihood. The risks of climate change to agriculture cannot be eff ectively dealt with--and the opportunities cannot be eff ectively exploited--without a clear plan for aligning agricultural policies with climate change, developing the capabilities of key agricultural institutions, and investing in infrastructure, support services, and on-farm improvements. Developing such a plan ideally involves a combination of high-quality quantitative analysis; consultation with key stakeholders, particularly farmers and local agricultural experts; and investments in both human and physical capital. The diverse experiences of Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, and Uzbekistan, highlighted in this book, show that it is possible to develop a plan to meet these objectives--one that is comprehensive and empirically driven as well as consultative and quick to develop. The approach of this volume is predicated on strong country ownership and participation, and is defi ned by its emphasis on "win-win" or "no regrets" solutions to the multiple challenges posed by climate change for the farmers of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The solutions are measures that increase resilience to future climate change, boost current productivity despite the greater climate variability already occurring, and limit greenhouse gas emissions--also known as "climate-smart agriculture." Looking Beyond the Horizon draws on the experiences of applying this approach to these four nations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with the goal of helping each country mainstream climate change adaptation into its agricultural policies, programs, and investments. The book also highlights the projected impacts of climate change on agriculture in these countries through forecast variations in temperature and rainfall patterns, which are crucial to farming, and off ers a map for navigating the risks and realizing the opportunities. Finally, a detailed e xplanation of the approach, as well as lessons learned from its implementation, is provided for those who would like to implement similar programs in other countries of Europe, Central Asia, or anywhere else in the world.