Handbook on climate information for farming communities – What farmers need and what is available

Handbook on climate information for farming communities – What farmers need and what is available
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2019-05-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9251313709

The content of this guide is twofold: to describe the most important weather and agroclimatic products that are available by the National Meteorological Service (NMS) and to identify the most important needs of farmers concerning climate information. Special consideration will be given to the local knowledge used by rural farmers, too often neglected, but a key factor to their ability to cope with climate variability and change. An additional objective of this guide is to improve communication among the NMS staff, in particular, meteorologists and agrometeorologists and to encourage Agro-Pastoral Field School (APFS) trainers and facilitators to be more aware of their respective availability. Furthermore, one of the most important aims is the exchange of agroclimatic information that corresponds to the needs of all concerned, thus facilitating the assessment of the existing climatic risks in farming activities. The integration of the Response Farming in Rainfed Agriculture (RF) approach into Farmer Field School (FFS) is feasibly an effective way to reconcile NMS products with the needs of farmers. RF is a method used for identifying and quantifying rainfall variability at a local level to assess the climatic risks of farming communities. The Climate-Responsive Farming Management (CRFM) approach is an enhanced version of RF that uses modern and digital technologies, such as specific computer software, automatic weather stations, real-time telecommunication and smartphone applications. This approach can be implemented at a minimum cost at the farming level.The integration of the Response Farming in Rainfed Agriculture (RF) approach into FFS is feasibly an effective way to reconcile NMS products with the needs of farmers. RF is a method used for identifying and quantifying rainfall variability at a local level to assess the climatic risks of farming communities. The Climate-Responsive Farming Management (CRFM) approach is an enhanced version of RF that uses modern and digital technologies, such as specific computer software, automatic weather stations, real-time telecommunication and smartphone applications. This approach can be implemented at a minimum cost at the farming level.

Managing climate risk on your farm

Managing climate risk on your farm
Author: Michael Ison
Publisher: NSW Agriculture
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2017-02-08
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1760580031

Weather and climate risk is a very broad and complex subject. One of our biggest challenges is to recognise the complexity of climate science and at the same time, implement practical ways of adapting and managing the impact of weather and climate on a farm business. This book explains daily and seasonal weather events; discusses the drivers of weather and climate and the longer term scientific models that measure and monitor our variable climate; and describes how to manage the risks that weather and climate present to your farm business. How to use this information to guide on-farm decision-making is the point of this book. It covers three key principles: 1. All farming systems involve change and adaption. 2. Variability in weather or climate brings unpredictability, uncertainty, and even disasters. These introduce risk into our farming systems. 3. Managing this risk is a planning process. There are tools and techniques that can keep risk in perspective, as a motivator rather than a stressor. Managing climate risk on your farm is based on the work of two previous publications from Tocal College; Weather and climate in farming, managing risks for profit (2000) Bayley, D and NBN Weather Book (2006) Bayley, D and Brouwer, D. Also used extensively in this book, A Farmer’s Guide to Managing Climate Risk, 8th edition 2008 by Michael Cashen, Advisory Officer Climatology. Recognition is given to the authors above for their important and significant contribution to this publication.

Handbook on Climate Change and Agriculture

Handbook on Climate Change and Agriculture
Author: Ariel Dinar
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0857939866

Ô. . . this book is a very useful resource for the lawyer. . . makes a good start by presenting a wide-ranging portfolio of multidisciplinary research that will assist in progressing the task, challenging though it may be.Õ Ð Chris Rodgers, Environmental Liability This book explores the interaction between climate change and the agriculture sector. Agriculture is essential to the livelihood of people and nations, especially in the developing world; therefore, any impact on it will have significant economic, social, and political ramifications. Scholars from around the world and from various fields have been brought together to explore this important topic. The contributions found here analyze direct agronomic effects, the economic impacts on agriculture, agricultural impacts on the economy, agricultural mitigation, and farmer adaptation. The authors argue that climate change is likely to have an extensive impact on agriculture around the world through changes in temperature, precipitation, concentrations of carbon dioxide, and available water flows. This thorough and timely volume is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in exploring the impacts of climate change in arguably the most important sector of the world economy. Economists, agronomists, and climate modelers in academia and the public sector, policy analysts and development agency staff, and graduate/postgraduate students will find this remarkable volume a welcome addition to their collection.

Handbook Of Climate Change And Agroecosystems: The Agricultural Model Intercomparison And Improvement Project (Agmip) Integrated Crop And Economic Assessments — Joint Publication With Asa, Cssa, And Sssa (In 2 Parts)

Handbook Of Climate Change And Agroecosystems: The Agricultural Model Intercomparison And Improvement Project (Agmip) Integrated Crop And Economic Assessments — Joint Publication With Asa, Cssa, And Sssa (In 2 Parts)
Author: Daniel Hillel
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 1159
Release: 2015-02-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1783265655

“Top agricultural scientists from around the world have taken up the challenge of sustainable agriculture, with the specific focus on integrating agronomic, climatological, biophysical and socio-economic perspectives and processes. Every chapter (of the Handbook) contributes to addressing the growing food-security challenges facing the world.”Foreword by Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia UniversityClimate effects on agriculture are of increasing concern in both the scientific and policy communities because of the growing population and the greater uncertainty in the weather during growing seasons. Changes in production are directly linked to variations in temperature and precipitation during the growing season and often to the offseason changes in weather because of soil water storage to replenish the soil profile. This is not an isolated problem but one of worldwide interest because each country has concerns about their food security.The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) was developed to evaluate agricultural models and intercompare their ability to predict climate impacts. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, South America and East Asia, AgMIP regional research teams (RRTs) are conducting integrated assessments to improve understanding of agricultural impacts of climate change (including biophysical and economic impacts) at national and regional scales. Other AgMIP initiatives include global gridded modeling, data and information technology (IT) tool development, simulation of crop pests and diseases, site-based crop-climate sensitivity studies, and aggregation and scaling.

Handbook of Climate Change and Agroecosystems

Handbook of Climate Change and Agroecosystems
Author: Daniel Hillel
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2011
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1848166559

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.

Compendium of community and indigenous strategies for climate change adaptation

Compendium of community and indigenous strategies for climate change adaptation
Author: Mwenge Kahinda, J., Bahal’okwibale, P. M., Budaza, N., Mavundla, S., Nohayi, N.N., Nortje, K., Boroto, R.J.
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2021-10-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9251316716

Climate change is a major challenge for life on Earth. It is mainly manifested through modifications of average temperature, rainfall intensity and patterns, winds and solar radiation. These modifications significantly affect basic resources, such as land and water resources. Populations at disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences with global warming of 1.5°C and beyond include disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous peoples, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods (IPCC, 2018). Therefore, adaptation measures are recommended in order to cope with climate change. Indigenous peoples have developed practices for climate change adaptation, based on their long-term experience with adverse climatic effects. There was thus a need to identify such practices as they could be effectively mainstreamed in community-based adaptation programmes. This report makes an inventory of indigenous and community adaptation practices across the world. The inventory was mainly done through literature review, field work and meetings with selected organisations. The case studies documented are categorized in five technologies and practices themes, including: (1) Weather forecasting and early warning systems; (2) Grazing and Livestock management; (3) Soil and Water Management (including cross slope barriers); (4) Water harvesting (and storage practices); (5) Forest Management (as a coping strategy to water scarcity), and; (6) Integrated wetlands and fisheries management. These were then related to the corresponding main agro-ecological zones (AEZ), namely arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, humid, highlands and coastal and wetlands. The AEZ approach was considered as an entry-point to adopting or adapting an existing indigenous strategy to similar areas. Challenges that threaten the effectiveness of indigenous and community adaption strategies were identified. These challenges include climate change itself (which is affecting the indicators and resources used by communities), human and livestock population growth (which is increasing pressure on natural resources beyond their resilience thresholds), current institutional and political settings (which limit migrants’ movements and delimits pieces of usable land per household), cultural considerations of communities (such as taboos and spiritual beliefs), and the lack of knowledge transfer to younger communities. Indigenous knowledge provides a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation strategies that sustain the resilience of social-ecological systems at the interconnected local, regional and global scales. In spite of challenges and knowledge gaps, these strategies have the potential of being strengthened through the adoption and adaptation of introduced technology from other communities or modern science. Attention to these strategies is already being paid by several donor-funded organisations, although in an uncoordinated manner.

Routledge Handbook of Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities

Routledge Handbook of Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
Author: Victoria Reyes-García
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 604
Release: 2023-12-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1003802710

This Handbook examines the diverse ways in which climate change impacts Indigenous Peoples and local communities and considers their response to these changes. While there is well-established evidence that the climate of the Earth is changing, the scarcity of instrumental data oftentimes challenges scientists’ ability to detect such impacts in remote and marginalized areas of the world or in areas with scarce data. Bridging this gap, this Handbook draws on field research among Indigenous Peoples and local communities distributed across different climatic zones and relying on different livelihood activities, to analyse their reports of and responses to climate change impacts. It includes contributions from a range of authors from different nationalities, disciplinary backgrounds, and positionalities, thus reflecting the diversity of approaches in the field. The Handbook is organised in two parts: Part I examines the diverse ways in which climate change – alone or in interaction with other drivers of environmental change – affects Indigenous Peoples and local communities; Part II examines how Indigenous Peoples and local communities are locally adapting their responses to these impacts. Overall, this book highlights Indigenous and local knowledge systems as an untapped resource which will be vital in deepening our understanding of the effects of climate change. The Routledge Handbook of Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities will be an essential reference text for students and scholars of climate change, anthropology, environmental studies, ethnobiology, and Indigenous studies.

Climate Information for Public Health Action

Climate Information for Public Health Action
Author: Madeleine C. Thomson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2018-09-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351631101

Policy-makers are increasingly concerned about the impact of climate variability and change on the health of vulnerable populations. Variations and trends in climatic factors and extreme weather events impact many health outcomes, including malaria, heat stress and undernutrition. Climate Information for Public Health Action is based on the premise that climate knowledge and information can help protect the public from climate-sensitive health risks. With a focus on infectious disease, hydro-meteorological disasters and nutrition, the book explores why, when and how data on the historical, current and future (from days to decades) climate can be incorporated into health decision-making. Created as a collaborative effort between climate and health experts, this book targets a broad technical public health community, alongside development practitioners and policy-makers engaged in climate change adaptation. It may also guide climate experts in the development of climate services tailored to health needs. Written in an accessible, informative style, while maintaining the highest technical and scientific standards, it will also be a valuable resource for students and academics studying and working in the emerging field of environment and health. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315115603, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."

Increasing Climate Variability and Change

Increasing Climate Variability and Change
Author: James Salinger
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2005-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1402041667

This book reviews the latest assessments of climate variability and climate change, and their impacts on agriculture and forestry, and recommends appropriate adaptation strategies for reducing the vulnerability of agriculture and forestry to climate variability and climate change. Among other solutions, the text offers management strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from different agroecosystems, and proposes the use of seasonal climate forecasts to reduce climate risk.