The role for scientists in tackling food insecurity and climate change

Beddington, J. R.; Asaduzzaman, Mohammed; Clark, Megan E.; Bremauntz, A. Fernández; Guillou, Marion; Jahn, Molly M.; Lin, Erda; Mamo, Tekalign; Negra, Christine; Nobre, Carlos A.; Scholes, Robert J.; Sharma, Rita; Bô, Nguyễn Vǎn; Wakhungu, Judi W.

doi:10.1186/2048-7010-1-10

Cited by 123 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(8 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Agriculture has to address at the same time three intertwined challenges: ensuring food safety through increased income and productivity, adapting to climate change and contributing to climate change mitigation [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review Paper: The Fundamentals of Biochar as a Soil Amendment Tool and Management in Agriculture Scope: An Overview for Farmers and Gardeners

Shareef¹,

Zhao²

2017

JACEN

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Improving the soil and biomass with coal is estimated at the international level as a way to enhance soil productiveness, fertility and also to mitigate climate change. Biochar employed to improve land scope and impound carbon, is attracting a great deal of attention. Its characteristics of chemical, physical and biological properties, containing big surface area, CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity), high water-holding capacity, size of pore, volume, distribution, and element composition, affect its recognized influences, particularly on microbial communities. These are discovered in the agriculture lands, lands remediation and composting. However, incomplete information existed about biochar for several farmers or peasants in agriculture scope. Therefore, farmers or peasants and gardeners are facing new opportunities and defiance each day, from feeding global extending and expanding population, whilst meeting severe new emissions requirements, to create more food on fewer land area while reducing their environmental emissions. Widespread application and utilization of biochar in agricultural scope, forestry production, energy, environmental protection and additional areas, has interested awareness by scientists and investigators inside and/or outside the country. The objective of this paper is to provide a guide for the farmers or peasants and gardeners with an essential information about biochar and what the ability of biochar can be achieved in the soil, and which can provide the scientific reference for the biochar application, and to get high yield and good quality of crops in all of different soils.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review Paper: The Fundamentals of Biochar as a Soil Amendment Tool and Management in Agriculture Scope: An Overview for Farmers and Gardeners

Shareef¹,

Zhao²

2017

JACEN

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The IPCC recognized that agriculture is an important sector in global climate change efforts as it is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and at the same time represents a significant part of the global emissions. It is necessary to increase agricultural production and its efficiency in the context of decreasing availability and declining quality of natural resources, often exacerbated by climate change (Beddington et al, 2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agriculture in the climate change negotiations; ensuring that food production is not threatened

Muldowney¹,

Mounsey²,

Kinsella³

2013

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the human population predicted to reach nine billion by 2050, demand for food is predicted to more than double over this time period, a trend which will lead to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. Furthermore, expansion in food production is predicted to occur primarily in the developing world, where adaptation to climate change may be more difficult and opportunities to mitigate emissions limited. In the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 'ensuring that food production is not threatened' is explicitly mentioned in the objective of the Convention. However, the focus of negotiations under the Convention has largely been on reducing GHG emissions from energy, and industrial activities and realizing the potential of forestry as a carbon sink. There has been little attention by the UNFCCC to address the challenges and opportunities for the agriculture sector. Since 2006, concerted efforts have been made to raise the prominence of agriculture within the negotiations. The most recent The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and 'The Emissions Gap Report' by the UNEP highlighted the significant mitigation potential of agriculture, which can help contribute towards keeping global temperature rises below the 28C limit agreed in Cancun. Agriculture has to be a part of the solution to address climate change, but this will also require a focus on how agriculture systems can adapt to climate change in order to continue to increase food output. However, to effectively realize this potential, systematic and dedicated discussion and decisions within the UNFCCC are needed. UNFCCC discussions on a specific agriculture agenda item started in 2012, but are currently inconclusive. However, Parties are generally in agreement on the importance of agriculture in contributing to food security and employment as well as the need to improve understanding of agriculture and how it can contribute to realizing climate objectives. Discussions on agriculture are continuing with a view to finding an acceptable approach to address the climate change related challenges faced by agriculture worldwide and to ensure that 'food production is not threatened'.

show abstract

“…While global population is set to grow to approximately 9 billion people by 2050 from the present 7 billion, which would require increased volume of food production, it is estimated that by 2080 the agricultural output in developing countries would decrease by 20% due to climate change [5,13]. In Africa; for instance, about 250 million people are likely to face food insecurity due to crop failure, loss of livestock and lack of water as result of climate change by 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Apart from the weather effect, food insecurity and famine can be caused by a number of factors such as low harvest, post-harvest losses, under nutrition [5,11], increase in food prices and population increase. While global population is set to grow to approximately 9 billion people by 2050 from the present 7 billion, which would require increased volume of food production, it is estimated that by 2080 the agricultural output in developing countries would decrease by 20% due to climate change [5,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This will further contribute to national efforts towards achievement of vision 2030. 3 that temperatures were projected to increase at a rate of 0.3/0.4 0 C/decade under RCP4.5/8.5 scenarios in both equatorial GHA region leading to an approximate temperature increase of 2/2.5 0 C by the middle of twenty first century.Apart from the weather effect, food insecurity and famine can be caused by a number of factors such as low harvest, post-harvest losses, under nutrition [5,11], increase in food prices and population increase. While global population is set to grow to approximately 9 billion people by 2050 from the present 7 billion, which would require increased volume of food production, it is estimated that by 2080 the agricultural output in developing countries would decrease by 20% due to climate change [5,13].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Assessing the Impact of Climate Variability on Food Security in Kenya: A Case Study of Kisii County

Samwel¹,

Abutto²,

Otieno³

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate variability and change has been found to be one of the factors that affect economies leading to food insecurity in various parts of the world. Kenya is no exception. This study looks at how climate variability has contributed to food insecurity in Kisii County, Kenya. The objectives of this study is therefore to, (i) to examine the rainfall and temperature trends in Kisii County for a period of 30 years, (ii) to examine the effect of climate variability on food production and (iii) to assess the perception of local farmers on weather and climate information, (iv) to evaluate the coping strategies adopted at household level to bridge the gap on food deficit and (v) to assess the nutritional status of children and the elderly in Kisii County. The study was conducted in the larger Kisii County. The data used was mainly rainfall and temperature data from meteorological stations and sample data gathered from selected groups. The study population comprised of children between 6 months and 59 months, household heads, elderly people and agricultural officers. Purposive sampling was used to select agricultural officers while multistage sampling was used to select respondents at household level. Primary data was collected by use of a pre-tested questionnaire. The MUAC tape was used to collect nutritional status of children while BMI data was obtained from elderly people. Mann Kendall statistic was used to determine whether the trend of rainfall and temperature observed is significant while Chi-square test was used to determine whether the coping strategies observed varied significantly at household level. From the analysis, rainfall has not shown any significant change in Kisii County while temperature trend has been significantly increasing over the years at 95% confidence level. This could explain the observed reduction in river levels. Analysis of crop production and price trends of major food crops in Kisii County showed a decreasing trend of food production leading to increase in price over the years. This meant that farmers could not produce enough to take them to the next harvesting season making farmers to adopt different coping strategies at household level which differed significantly according to Chi-Square test. Malnutrition status of both elderly people above 59 years and children between 6-59 months were similar with 23% of both children/elderly being severely malnourished/malnourished. This study has only looked at climatic factors such as rainfall and temperature. Other aspects such as depth of underground water, ph level of soil and the effects of land fragmentation also need to be looked at. This study is important to both farmers in choosing the right crop to plant, and policy makers and planners in formulating the best mitigation and intervention strategies for Kisii County food insecurity problem. This will further contribute to national efforts towards achievement of vision 2030. 3 that temperatures were projected to increase at a rate of 0.3/0.4 0 C/decade under RCP4.5/8.5 scenarios ...

show abstract

The role for scientists in tackling food insecurity and climate change

Cited by 123 publications

References 10 publications

Review Paper: The Fundamentals of Biochar as a Soil Amendment Tool and Management in Agriculture Scope: An Overview for Farmers and Gardeners

Review Paper: The Fundamentals of Biochar as a Soil Amendment Tool and Management in Agriculture Scope: An Overview for Farmers and Gardeners

Agriculture in the climate change negotiations; ensuring that food production is not threatened

Assessing the Impact of Climate Variability on Food Security in Kenya: A Case Study of Kisii County

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About