CGIAR Climate News Roundup

Feeding Ourselves on a Warming Planet

CGIAR Climate — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:22:29 GMT

A new working paper suggests that modest efforts to tackle climate change are not enough to protect the world’s food supply.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Bringing the field to the farmers: how video is transforming agriculture

CGIAR Climate — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:10:56 GMT

Farm yields are low not because improved practices do not exist, but because farmers are unaware of them

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

New versus old media: how best to get information to smallholder farmers

CGIAR Climate — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:21:52 GMT

Projects based on radio, mobile technology and social networking give an insight into what works best for farmers

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Probing Impact of Warming On the World's Food Supply by Olive Heffernan: Yale Environment 360

CGIAR Climate — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:49:22 GMT

One of the few potential advantages attributed to soaring carbon dioxide levels has been enhanced crop growth.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

World Bank spending on forests fails to curb poverty, auditors claim

CGIAR Climate — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:00:34 GMT

Report by World Bank's own evaluators say its investments support logging and do little to help rural poor people

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

allAfrica.com: Africa: Climate Change to Cut Food By 30 Percent

CGIAR Climate — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:44:39 GMT

Dar es Salaam — Recent research done by different scientists in Africa has shown that production of important crops especially maize will decrease by 30% for the period of 20 years due to the effect of Climate Change.

The most affected areas according to scientists are in the Southern and Eastern Africa including Tanzania.

That was revealed by the Assistant Director of Environment in the Vice President's Office, Mr Richard Muyungi in Dar es Salaam last week during the agriculture workshop organized by Agriculture Council of Tanzania (ACT).

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Ecosystem Marketplace - REDD+ And The Future Of Climate-Safe Agriculture

CGIAR Climate — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:57:28 GMT

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Worldwatch Report #188: Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture: Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production | Worldwatch Institute

CGIAR Climate — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:53:06 GMT

by Danielle Nierenberg and Laura Reynolds

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Global food crisis will worsen as heatwaves damage crops

CGIAR Climate — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:44:41 GMT

Nature Climate Change

CGIAR Climate's insight:
A global assessment of the effects of climate policy on the impacts of climate changeNature Climate Change(2013)doi:10.1038/nclimate1793

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Time for a rethink? Getting smart about politics on climate change and agriculture

CGIAR Climate — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:19:39 GMT

By Lars Otto Naess, FAC Climate Change theme convenor, and Peter Newell, Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex.

CGIAR Climate's insight:
While there is broad agreement that the increased focus on climate change and agriculture provides important opportunities, the case studies suggest that it is too early to say whether these opportunities translate into benefits for the poorest and most vulnerable groups and how this should happen in practice.
The failure of the discussions on agriculture in Doha could be used as an opening to better understand what is at stake, and under what conditions concepts such as ‘climate smart agriculture’ could improve the lives of poor and vulnerable farmers.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production

CGIAR Climate — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:17:49 GMT

Nourishing the Planet
CGIAR Climate's insight:
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the global agricultural sector could potentially reduce and remove 80 to 88 percent of the carbon dioxide that it currently emits. By adopting more-sustainable approaches, small-scale agriculture in developing countries has the potential to contribute 70 percent of agriculture’s global mitigation of climate change. And many of these innovations have the potential to be replicated, adapted, and scaled up for application on larger farms, helping to improve water availability, increase diversity, and improve soil quality, as well as mitigate climate change.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Young Scientists Networking Conference « ISSC

CGIAR Climate — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:44:30 GMT

Young scientists are invited to submit applications for participation in a Networking Conference on Integrated Science.

The ISSC and ICSU, in collaboration with the DFG, are planning to assemble a large group of young researchers with diverse research perspectives to reflect on Food Futures and debate relevant issues as part of a series of conferences on Integrated Science. The aim is to bring together creative multidimensional, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives to address such a complex topic like food systems. These early career scientists will ask what are and will be the challenges related to food, now and in the future, and they are expected to devise the next generation of research programmes and projects, looking for a suitable definition and means to reach global sustainability goals.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

DFG chief announces global sustainability initiatives with ICSU

CGIAR Climate — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:44:07 GMT

In the course of his Guest Lecture at the opening of the 30th General Assembly of ICSU in Rome, Professor Matthias Kleiner, President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the German Research Foundation, announced two projects that DFG...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Cutting livestock greenhouse gases requires effort from rich and poor countries

CGIAR Climate — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:57:26 GMT

Regulating livestock greenhouse gas emissions could shift livestock production to unregulated, less developed countries unless those poorer nations can be enticed to preserve their forested lands, according to a Purdue University economic study. Photo: N Palmer (CIAT)

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

From climate-smart agriculture to climate-smart landscapes |Agriculture & Food Security

CGIAR Climate — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:25:19 GMT

For agricultural systems to achieve climate-smart objectives, including improved food security and rural livelihoods as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation, they often need to be take a landscape approach; they must become...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Report warns of global food insecurity as climate change destroys fisheries | Guardian

CGIAR Climate — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:06:01 GMT

Persian Gulf, Libya, and Pakistan expected to be hardest hit by decline in fish stocks in coming decades...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

How will climate change affect food production? | The Guardian

CGIAR Climate — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:38:06 GMT

Global warming is already affecting farmers worldwide; future impacts will vary by region, crop and temperature...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Kenyan farmers cut tilling to raise yields, store carbon - AlertNet

CGIAR Climate — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:52:31 GMT

Conservation agriculture is being tested in East Africa, where it could cut costs, boost production and help fight climate change...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Food security effects of climate change will be felt in 10 years - University of Leeds

CGIAR Climate — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:16:35 GMT

University of Leeds News - Food security effects of climate change will be felt in 10 years - Research released today shows that within the next 10 years large parts of Asia can expect increased risk of more severe droughts, which will impact...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Impact of climate change on food prices is underestimated, Oxfam warns | The Guardian

CGIAR Climate — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:44:56 GMT

Price spikes will be a devastating blow to the world's poorest and will also affect UK consumers...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Extreme Weather, Extreme Prices: The costs of feeding a warming world | Oxfam GB | Policy & Practice

CGIAR Climate — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:26:32 GMT

Climate change is making extreme weather much more likely. As the 2012 drought in the USA shows, extreme weather means extreme food prices. Our failure to slash greenhouse gas emissions presents a future of greater food price volatility, with severe consequences for the precarious lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty. This briefing draws on new research commissioned by Oxfam which models the impact of extreme weather – like droughts, floods and heat waves – on the prices of key international staple crops in 2030. It suggests that existing research, which considers the gradual effects of climate change but does not take account of extreme weather, is significantly underestimating the potential implications of climate change for food prices. This research shows how extreme weather events in a single year could bring about price spikes of comparable magnitude to two decades of long-run price rises. It signals the urgent need for a full stress-testing of the global food system in a warming world.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Kenya's farmers spot opportunities in warming climate - AlertNet

CGIAR Climate — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:28:00 GMT

Some women start to grow vegetables as temperatures creep higher, while others struggle on with maize...

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Tackling The Root Causes Of High Food Prices And Hunger | WFP

CGIAR Climate — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:11:08 GMT

FAO, IFAD, and WFP issued a joint statement on food prices: "In responding to high food prices, the things we must avoid doing are just as important as the things we should do. In particular, countries must avoid panic buying and refrain from imposing export restrictions, which, while temporarily helping some consumers at home, are generally inefficient and make life difficult for everyone else.
Above all, however, we must understand that high food prices are a symptom, and not the disease. So while the international community must take early action to prevent excessive price increases, it should also move to act on the root causes behind such surges."

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Drought in India Devastates Crops and Farmers | NYTimes

CGIAR Climate — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:09:02 GMT

With the nourishing downpours of the monsoon season down an average of 12 percent across India, farmers are on the brink of disaster.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

The Impact of First-Generation Biofuels on the Depletion of the Global Phosphorus Reserve | AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment,

CGIAR Climate — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:42:06 GMT

New report by Lars Hein and Rik Leemans. The large majority of biofuels to date is “first-generation” biofuel made from agricultural commodities. All first-generation biofuel production systems require phosphorus (P) fertilization. P is an essential plant nutrient, yet global reserves are finite. We argue that committing scarce P to biofuel production involves a trade-off between climate change mitigation and future food production. We examine biofuel production from seven types of feedstock, and find that biofuels at present consume around 2% of the global inorganic P fertilizer production. For all examined biofuels, with the possible exception of sugarcane, the contribution to P depletion exceeds the contribution to mitigating climate change. The relative benefits of biofuels can be increased through enhanced recycling of P, but high increases in P efficiency are required to balance climate change mitigation and P depletion impacts. We conclude that, with the current production systems, the production of first-generation biofuels compromises food production in the future.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

How to secure food for the world |chinadaily

CGIAR Climate — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:26:11 GMT

A series of natural disasters in several food producing countries have lowered current and future production forecasts and driven up prices of many staples central to the global agricultural market says Shenggen Fan of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

What a global food crisis looks like: Oxfam's food prices map | Oxfam International

CGIAR Climate — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 23:34:56 GMT

Oxfam's new interactive map shows how poor communities across the world are being hurt by high and volatile food prices. The ‘food price pressure points map’ provides a global snapshot of the impacts of the global food price crisis.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Farmers, ranchers try to cope with climate change

CGIAR Climate — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 07:05:18 GMT

Farmers, ranchers and scientists have decided it's too late to fight it; they try to breed animals and plants to survive and thrive.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Forecasting Climate’s Effects on Global Food Production – State of the Planet

CGIAR Climate — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:36:29 GMT

Is there a better way to anticipate climate’s effect on food production? A group of experts on climate, agriculture and economics have gathered to address this question through the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, or AgMIP. In the latest issue of Nature Climate Change, Cynthia Rosenzweig, a climate scientist at Columbia’s Earth Institute and the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies, explains how the project came about and what its priorities will be. Rosenzweig is co-leading the project, which aims to assess climate impacts on regional and global food security now and in the future.

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Climate change poses risks to food, beyond US drought | Reuters

CGIAR Climate — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:34:47 GMT

Downpours and heatwaves caused by climate change could disrupt food supplies from the fields to the supermarkets, raising the risk of more price spikes such as this year's leap triggered by drought in the United States.

Photo: N. Palmer (CIAT)

See it on Scoop.it, via Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security