Agricultural research 'key to easing climate-change impacts'

Rasha Dewedar in SciDev.net:  Agricultural research should be a strategic priority of the UN's efforts to lessen the impacts of climate change, according to a report launched at a UN climate change conference in Doha, Qatar.

The report, released by a group of leading international experts in climate change and agriculture last month (30 November), is intended to inform policymakers and agricultural planners about the risks climate change poses to dry areas. It offers practical solutions to reduce these threats and boost the productivity of this type of land.

'Strategies for Combating Climate Change in Drylands Agriculture' was produced by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) with two CGIAR research programmes — on Dryland Systems and on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) — and the Qatar National Food Security Programme.

Drylands constitute more than 40 per cent of the world's land surface and are home to 2.5 billion people, says the report. Those lands have less than eight per cent of the world's renewable water sources and are vulnerable to temperature extremes, frequent drought, land degradation and desertification, it adds....

A dry field in Chandeni, India, shot by Nitin.i.azam, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license