Reducing risks to food security from climate change
This article (PDF) by Global Food Security is addressing an action oriented research agenda towards the challenges that climate-change brings for food security. The authors see a strong research-implementation gap, as the growing number of climate impact studies on crop yields, provides marginal increases in knowledge. Therefore, the authors call for the scientific agenda to turn its attention to practical options in the face of climate change. According to the authors, the new agenda will face four key challenges: The first is to change the culture of research to focus on outcomes. This will involve extensive stakeholder engagement. The second is to design and trial portfolios of options. Solutions will be highly context-specific, so there is a need for prioritization approaches for the benefit of communities, projects and countries. The third challenge is to achieve social inclusion through a focus on people who are most vulnerable to climate change. The final challenge they bring forward, is to address adaptation and mitigation together in the context of food security, at farm, national and global levels. To meet these challenges, science must work hand in hand with practitioners and policy-makers, to devise sensible options that meet current needs and capacities, try out best bets, and learn from experience.