climate change

This paper by the Inter-American Development Bank, analyzes in detail the market constraints on the development of the agricultural insurance market in Colombia and provides recommendations so that it can fulfill its potential as a risk management tool in the country. Insurance can potentially play an important role in climate change adaptation for rural households in developing countries as part of the overall climate change adaptation strategy. However, agricultural insurance markets have many market failures that inhibit their full development. »

The strategic partnership between the CGIAR and the Netherlands is taking shape. On June 2, 2016 a stock meeting was organized to discuss the progress with the development of the NL-CGIAR Portfolio. Participants from knowledge institutions, government, private sector, civil society and CGIAR CRPs were present at the meeting to discuss the progress. »

This book by The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is offering 14 best practises and policies that increase agricultural productivity and farmers’ resilience to climate change. Key ingredients for success can be distilled out of these cases, such as active farmer participation and youth attraction. Projects which involve high levels of initial investment or drudgery, fail to attract young people, and are costly in terms of time and labour are unlikely to be successful. »

This brochure (PDF) by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), focuses on how to make 500 million farmers climate-resilient in 10 years while also reducing their agricultural emissions. It includes lessons learnt from five years of CCAFS work. »

This report focuses on the wider health impacts of future changes in agricultural production. While much research focuses on questions on food security, less attention has been devoted to assessing the health impacts. In this modelling study, the authors estimate that the health impacts of climate change from changes in dietary and weight related risk factors could be significant, and exceed other climate-related health impacts that have been estimated. »

This article in the Financial Times elaborates on the impact of extreme weather on food prices and on the reasons for the declining global food prices despite climate concerns and the impacts of El Niño. International food prices, including sugar and dairy, have been falling for the past four years, with only one exceptional spike in October, particularly for sugar. The sudden spike in sugar prices illustrated the economic impact of the unusual weather events triggered by El Niño, which is expected to further disrupt commodity prices in 2016. »