Numerous studies indicate that agricultural production is sensitive to climate variability, and lack of infrastructure in developing countries increases vulnerability to extreme climate events. In Ethiopia, the historical climate record indicates frequent droughts and floods, which can devastate agricultural production and existing infrastructure. Too much precipitation can flood crops, rot or suffocate roots, and wash out roads, creating similar economic conditions to those resulting from drought.

Despite rapid income growth, South Asia has lagged behind the rest of Asia in reducing poverty and hunger. South Asia accounts for more than two-fifths of the world's poor, and although the region seems on track to meet the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty and hunger by 2015, it faces challenges in achieving that goal.

Human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation have significantly increased the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) leading to global climate change. Global climate change and its associated weather extremes pose considerable challenges worldwide, and mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change is a high priority for the international community. To reduce global emissions and curb the threat of climate change, many countries are participating in carbon trading.

Global climate change poses great risks to poor people whose livelihoods depend directly on agriculture, forestry, and other natural resource uses. IFPRI's climate change research focuses on the assessment of, adaptation to, and mitigation of these risks. Strategic, cost-effective, and pro-poor policy reforms that enhance human welfare in equitable and sustainable ways form the core ofIFPRI's Global Change Program. The Program analyzes the complex interrelations between climate change and agricultural growth, food security, and natural resource sustainability.

Agriculture is vitally important to the world's hungry people, the majority of whom live in rural areas and depend on the land for their food and livelihoods. Yet the increasing fragility of the natural resource base, compounded by global shifts such as population growth, climate change, and energy scarcity, adds to the vulnerability of the world's 800 million food-insecure people. Emerging food and agricultural technologies offer significant promise for advances, but only if they are supported by appropriate policies and institutions.

Over the coming decades, global change will have an impact on food and water security in significant and highly uncertain ways, and there are strong indications that developing countries will bear the brunt of the adverse consequences, particularly from climate change. This is largely because poverty levels are high, and developing-country capacity to adapt to global change is weak.

The recent food crisis, combined with the energy crisis and emerging climate change issues, threatens the livelihoods of millions of poor people as well as the economic, ecological, and political situation in many developing countries. On top of these crises, the decades of shrinking global investment in agricultural research are leading to slower growth in agricultural productivity. Progress in achieving development goals-such as cutting hunger and poverty in half by 2015-has been delayed significantly.

Numerous studies indicate that agricultural production is sensitive to climate variability, and lack of infrastructure in developing countries increases vulnerability to extreme climate events. In Ethiopia, the historical climate record indicates frequent droughts and floods, which can devastate agricultural production and existing infrastructure. Too much precipitation can flood crops, rot or suffocate roots, and wash out roads, creating similar economic conditions to those resulting from drought.

After 30 years of dynamic growth and substantial poverty reduction in Asia, do agriculture and rural development still have a role to play in that region? The policy briefs in this collection provide abundant evidence that they do. Although the incidence of people living in poverty fell from more than 50 percent in the mid-1970s to 18 percent in 2004, and the incidence of hunger fell to 16 percent, Asia is still home to more than half of the world’s poor, most of whom live in rural areas. Agriculture and rural development are thus still key to reducing poverty and hunger in the region.

Across vast areas of the world, human activity has degraded once fertile and productive land. Deforestation, overgrazing, continuous farming and poor irrigation practices have affected almost 2 billion hectares worldwide, threatening the health and livelihoods of over one billion people. In this edition of New Agriculturist, a collection of articles explores some of the approaches and policies that can help to successfully rehabilitate degraded land.

This report analyses the impact of climate change and land degradation on agriculture and related sectors in Viet Nam. It intends to guide the project based on the design of the Country Strategic Opportunities Paper (COSOP) priorities and to identify supplementary financing for International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) projects from the UNFCCC and other carbon related financing mechanisms. It is explained that the harmful effects of climate change are already being experienced in Viet Nam, and farming communities have begun to respond by:

Following from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture project, this book examines the relationships and linkages between land use and water management and social systems. Given that agriculture is the largest economic sector in many developing countries, this volume provides innovative ideas for the prevention of land degradation and for improving the sustainability of food production in the developing world.