The focus of this book is future global climate change and its implications for agricultural systems which are the main sources of agricultural goods and services provided to society. These systems are either based on crop or livestock production, or on combinations of the two, with characteristics that differ between regions and between levels of management intensity. In turn, they also differ in their sensitivity to projected future changes in climate, and improvements to increase climate-resilience need to be tailored to the specific needs of each system. The book will bring together a series of chapters that provide scientific insights to possible implications of projected climate changes for different important types of crop and livestock systems, and a discussion of options for adaptive and mitigative management.
a: Introduction 1: Climate projections for 2050 2: Rainfed Intensive
Crop Systems 3: Climate Sensitivity of Intensive Rice-Wheat Systems in
Tropical Asia: Focus on the Indo-Gangetic Plains 4: Climate Change Challenges
for Low Input Cropping and Grazing Systems Australia 5: Diversity in
Organic and Agroecological Farming Systems for Mitigation of Climate Change
Impact, with Examples from Latin America 6: UK Fruit and Vegetable Production
Impacts of Climate Change and Opportunities for Adaptation 7: Intensive
Livestock Systems for Dairy Cows 8: Climate Change and Integrated
Crop-Livestock Systems in Temperate-Humid Regions of North and South America:
Mitigation and Adaptation 9: Land Managed for Multiple Services 10:
Adaptation of Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems in Asia 11: Enhancing Climate
Resilience of Cropping Systems 12: Shaping Sustainable Intensive Production
Systems: Improved Crops and Cropping Systems in the Developing World 13: The
Role of Modelling in Adapting and Building the Climate Resilience of Cropping
Systems 14: Agroforestry Solutions for Buffering Climate Variability and
Adapting to Change 15: Channelling the Future? The Use of Seasonal Climate
Forecasts in Climate Adaptation 16: Agricultural Adaptation to Climate
Change: New Approaches to Knowledge and Learning 17: What are the Factors
that Dictate the Choice of Coping Strategies for Extreme Climate Events? The
Case of Farmers in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia
works at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) where his main focus has been to improve the adaptation of wheat to drought and heat stressed environments in collaboration with national wheat programs worldwide. His laboratory develops methodologies that have enhanced the efficiency of breeding and research and led to identification of genetic bases of adaptive traits. These approaches have resulted in a new generation of wheat cultivars based on the combination of stress-adaptive traits from highly diverse genetic sources. Reynolds is also coordinating the establishment of a global consortium to raise the yield potential of wheat to help bolster productivity in the developing world where the dual impact of climate change and population growth threaten food security.
