Climate Change And Global Food Security

In order to feed their burgeoning populations, developing nations will need to double cereal production by the year 2050. This increase will have to come from existing land, as little potential exists for bringing new land under cultivation -- a daunting prospect when one realizes that increased use and significantly higher concentrations of carbon dioxide have led to a severe depletion of the carbon pool in the world's soils. This is especially telling in developing countries where tropical climates further compromise the soil's ability to recover. In Climate Change and Global Food Security, bestselling editor Rattan Lal heads up a team of the world's top soil scientists and ecologists to document the history of this impending agricultural crisis and explore possible solutions. Throughout this timely text, the authors address six complex themes: 1. The impact of projected climate change on soil quality, water resources, temperature regime, and growing season duration on net primary productivity of different biomes 2. Soil carbon dynamics under changing climate 3. The impact of changes in carbon dioxide and ecological environments on agronomic yields and food production in different regions of the world 4. World food demands and supply during the 21st century 5. Policy and economic issues related to carbon trading and enhancing agricultural production 6. Research and development priorities for enhancing soil carbon pool and food security This hard-hitting text is essential reading for anyone involved with soil and crop sciences as well as policy makers and change agents who need to come to the forefront of this issue armed with the latest information and viable solutions.

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.

Global environmental change (GEC) represents an immediate and unprecedented threat to the food security of hundreds of millions of people, especially those who depend on small-scale agriculture for their livelihoods. As this book shows, at the same time, agriculture and related activities also contribute to GEC by, for example, intensifying greenhouse gas emissions and altering the land surface. Responses aimed at adapting to GEC may have negative consequences for food security, just as measures taken to increase food security may exacerbate GEC. The authors show that this complex and dynamic relationship between GEC and food security is also influenced by additional factors; food systems are heavily influenced by socioeconomic conditions, which in turn are affected by multiple processes such as macro-level economic policies, political conflicts and other important drivers. The book provides a major, accessible synthesis of the current state of knowledge and thinking on the relationships between GEC and food security. Most other books addressing the subject concentrate on the links between climate change and agricultural production, and do not extend to an analysis of the wider food system which underpins food security; this book addresses the broader issues, based on a novel food system concept and stressing the need for actions at a regional, rather than just an international or local, level. It reviews new thinking which has emerged over the last decade, analyses research methods for stakeholder engagement and for undertaking studies at the regional level, and looks forward by reviewing a number of emerging 'hot topics' in the food security-GEC debate which help set new agendas for the research community at large. Published with Earth System Science Partnership, GECAFS and SCOPE

This book looks at the current state of food security and climate change, discusses the issues that are affecting them, and the actions required to ensure there will be enough food for the future. By casting a much wider net than most previously published books—to include select novel approaches, techniques, genes from crop diverse genetic resources or relatives—it shows how agriculture may still be able to triumph over the very real threat of climate change. Food Security and Climate Change integrates various challenges posed by changing climate, increasing population, sustainability in crop productivity, demand for food grains to sustain food security, and the anticipated future need for nutritious quality foods. It looks at individual factors resulting from climate change, including rising carbon emission levels, increasing temperature, disruptions in rainfall patterns, drought, and their combined impact on planting environments, crop adaptation, production, and management. The role of plant genetic resources, breeding technologies of crops, biotechnologies, and integrated farm management and agronomic good practices are included, and demonstrate the significance of food grain production in achieving food security during climate change. Food Security and Climate Change is an excellent book for researchers, scientists, students, and policy makers involved in agricultural science and technology, as well as those concerned with the effects of climate change on our environment and the food industry.

With the potential to impact weather patterns, agriculture, and habitability of certain regions, global warming is a topic of interest to environmentalists, scientists, as well as farmers around the world. The threat of food shortages and famine especially becomes a major concern as a result of recent climate shifts. Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security in Small Island Developing States discusses the repercussions of a shifting climate on food production and availability in small island nations. Comprised of research-based chapters on topics relevant to crop management, sustainable development, and livestock management on island territories, this advanced reference work is appropriate for environmental researchers, food scientists, academicians, and upper-level students seeking the latest information on agricultural concerns amidst a changing climate.

Global climatic change has resulted in new and unpredictable patterns of precipitation and temperature, the increased frequency of extreme weather events and rising sea levels. These changes impact all four aspects of food security – availability, accessibility, stability of supply and appropriate nourishment – as well as the entire food system – food production, marketing, processing, distribution and prices. Climate Change and Food Security focuses on the challenge to food security posed by a changing climate. The book brings together many of the critical global concerns of climate change and food security through local cases based on empirical studies undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Focusing on risk reduction and the complex nature of vulnerability to climate change, the book includes chapters on the responsiveness of farmers based on traditional knowledge, as well as the critical phenomenon of food insecurity in the urban setting. Other chapters are devoted to efforts made to strengthen resilience through long-term development, with interventions at the regional and national levels of scale. It also examines cross-cutting themes that underlie the strategies employed to achieve food security, including equity, gender, livelihoods and governance. This edited volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, food security, environmental management and sustainable development.

Developing Climate Resilient Crops; A window for improving global food security and safety project is timely, as the world is gradually waking up to the fact that a global food crisis of enormous proportions is brewing. Climate change is creating immense problems for the agricultural productivity worldwide, resulting in higher food prices. This book elucidates the causative aspects of climate modification related to agriculture, soil and plants, and discusses the relevant resulting mitigation process and also how new tools and resources can be used to develop climate resilient crops . Salient Features: Addresses the limits of the anthropogenic global warming theory advocated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Presents the main characters (drought tolerance, heat tolerance, water use efficiency, disease resistance, nitrogen use efficiency, nitrogen fixation, and carbon sequestration) necessary for climate resilient agriculture. Delivers both theoretical and practical aspects, and serves as base line information for future research. Provides valuable resource for those students engaged in the field of environmental sciences, soil sciences, agricultural microbiology, plant pathology, and agronomy. Highlights factors that are threatening future food production

This book addresses an important topic of food security in South Asia with specific reference to climate change. Of the 1 billion food insecure people in the world, more than 30% are in South Asia. The problem of food insecurity may be exacerbated by the projected climate change especially because of the water scarcity caused by rapid melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas and increase in variability in monsoonal rains and frequency of extreme events. Furthermore, large populations of Bangladesh and other coastal regions may be displaced by sea level rise. Thus, this volume addresses recommended land use and soil/water/crop/vegetation management practices which would enable land managers to adapt to climate disruption by enhancing soil/ecosystem/social resilience. In addition to biophysical factors, this book also addresses the issues related to human dimensions including social, ethnical and political considerations.