Global Outlook On Climate Services In Agriculture

Climate change and extreme weather events are heightening levels of acute food insecurity and food crises around the world. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and deals with other drivers of food security, poverty and inequality, the international community is calling for a climate-resilient and sustainable recovery. Supporting the shift away from disaster response toward preventative and anticipatory action is fundamental to address the growing challenges faced by agriculture and food systems. Climate services highlight the role of science and technology in providing innovative solutions for risk reduction, effective resilience policies and adaptation planning. Underpinned by robust science and agrometeorological data, climate services and digital advisories bring tailored climate information to agricultural producers and value chain actors. But despite increasing evidence of the benefits of climate services, there are still major gaps in their development worldwide. This global assessment points to a significant gap in investment in climate services for the last mile – the small-scale farmers and most marginalized communities. Bridging this gap and scaling climate services is essential if actionable information is to be communicated in an equitable and effective manner to users, making sure no one is left behind. The report presents the latest data on the state of climate services for agricultural users with surveys from 36 countries across all FAO regions. The report’s findings have major implications for institutional frameworks to effectively target investments in resilience, preparedness and recovery. Case studies highlight additional challenges, opportunities and lessons learned from specific interventions across the climate services provision framework. Despite many challenges, climate services have demonstrable benefits to agriculture and food security by navigating agricultural producers around unpredictable and changing weather patterns. The report presents a blueprint for targeted investments to ensure that finance is effectively allocated not only to enhance the production of climate services, but also their provision, engagement and application by agricultural communities.

This book provides essential insights into methods and practices of ‘Climate-smart Agriculture,’ which is driven by the principles of climate resilience and smart resource use in agricultural production. Climate-smart agriculture is a key policy instrument for achieving poverty eradication and a hunger-free world, as well as mitigating the effects of climate change. This book discusses in detail climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices that can reduce the vulnerability of agricultural systems, improve the livelihoods of farmers and other stakeholders, and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from crop production and livestock husbandry. The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector produces roughly 10–12 gigatons of CO2-equivalent per year; therefore, sustainable practices for agriculture and related land use hold immense potential to mitigate climate change. The potential impacts of climate variability and climate change on agriculture are extensively documented and articulated, especially with regard to global and national environmental agendas that call for innovation, transformation and climate-resilient advances in agriculture. As the book demonstrates, climate-smart agriculture offers an excellent tool for boosting agricultural output to feed the growing global population; for reducing greenhouse gases emissions from agriculture and other land use; and for protecting agricultural production systems from the impending dangers of climate change.

Global climate change threatens human existence through its potential impact on agriculture and the environment. Agriculture is climate-sensitive, and climate variability and climate change have net negative impact on it. Additionally, the agricultural landscape is affected by monoculture and agro-biodiversity loss, soil fertility depletion and soil loss, competition from biofuel production, crop yield plateaus and invasive species. Nevertheless, the global agricultural production system has to meet the food demands from the growing human population, which is set to exceed 10 billion by 2050. This book discusses the impacts of climate change on agriculture, animal husbandry and rural livelihoods. Further, since agriculture, forestry and other land-use sectors contribute about 10–12 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent per year, it argues that agricultural policy must dovetail adaptation and mitigation strategies to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. This calls for a reformative and disruptive agricultural strategy like climate-smart agriculture, which can operate at all spatio-temporal scales with few modifications. The book also redefines sustainable agriculture through the lens of climate-smart agriculture in the context of the sustainability of Earth's life- support system and inter- and intra-generational equity. The climate-smart agriculture approach is gaining currency thanks to its inherent positive potential, and its goal to establish an agricultural system which includes "climate-smart food systems", "climate-proof farms", and "climate-smart soils". Climate-smart agriculture provides a pathway to achieve sustainable development goals which focus on poverty reduction, food security, and environmental health.

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.

This volume is the first centralized source of technological and policy solutions for sustainable agriculture and food systems resilience in the face of climate change. The editors have compiled a comprehensive collection of the latest tested, replicable green technologies and approaches for food security, including smart crops and new agricultural paradigms, sustainable natural resources management, and strategies for risk assessment and governance. Studies from resource-constrained countries with vulnerable populations are emphasized, with contributions on multisector partnership from development professionals. Debates concerning access to climate-smart technologies, intellectual property rights, and international negotiations on technology transfer are also included. The editors are, respectively, a public health physician, a development professional and an environmental scientist. They bring their varied perspectives together to curate a holistic volume that will be useful for policy makers, scientists, community-based organizations, international organizations and researchers across the world.

Increasing food production in the face of a growing population, while adapting to and mitigating climate change constitutes a main challenge for the global agricultural sector. This study identifies, analyses and contextualizes regional initiatives related to agriculture and climate change in developing countries. In order to identify needs for improvements and possibilities for replication or scale-up, a review of recently launched initiatives is combined with a SWOT analysis. Moreover, the study places initiatives in the context of INDCs of Sub-Saharan African countries submitted under the UNFCCC. As a result, recommendations on how to develop and implement best practice agriculture climate change initiatives are presented.

Climate change is a significant and growing threat to food security—already affecting vulnerable populations in many developing countries, and expected to affect ever more people in more places, unless action is taken beginning today. Current scenarios for business-as-usual farming under climate change project growing food security challenges by 2050. Worst hit will be underdeveloped regions of the world where food insecurity is already a problem and populations are vulnerable to shocks (Rosegrant et al. 2014). Improvements in agricultural technology and management are expected to increase food security, but if we do not address climate change, climate-related losses in crop and livestock productivity will reduce those gains (Lobell and Gourdji 2012). In this challenging environment, countries will need to contend with shifts in which crops they can best produce, significant changes in global prices, and change in countries’ comparative advantages. New analytical tools that allow policy makers and decision makers to integrate data from the global to the local level offer an important opportunity for countries to identify the most effective ways to address climate change. As the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) gets underway and the role of agriculture as a key element in reducing emissions is widely recognized, countries can use these tools to identify locally appropriate policies that will reduce the impact of climate change on food security over the long term.

According to the United Nations, the world’s population will grow by 2 billion people over the coming decades to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (UNDESA-DP 2019a). The dignity and life prospects of those additional 2 billion people will depend on their ability to meet basic needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter, and their access to adequate employment. The most pressing need for jobs will be felt in those regions and countries that have not yet gone through the demographic transition, and where the cohort of young people is growing rapidly. The challenge will be compounded by an increasingly crowded, more competitive world with fewer natural resources per capita, and by the threat of climate change, which is projected to affect every sector of the economy (Arent 2014).