The State of Food and Agriculture 2016 : Climate change, agriculture and food security

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, represents a new beginning in the global effort to stabilize the climate before it is too late. It recognizes the importance of food security in the international response to climate change, as reflected by many countries focusing prominently on the agriculture sector in their planned contributions to adaptation and mitigation. To help put those plans into action, this report identifies strategies, financing opportunities, and data and information needs. It also describes transformative policies and institutions that can overcome barriers to implementation. 

Access  Full Report: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6030e.pdf

Food safety and trade should improve nutrition and boost development – UN agencies

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to strengthen their cooperation to promote international food trade and safety in ways that improve nutrition and allow small-scale producers to have better access to international agricultural markets.

“We look forward to ensuring fair trade of agricultural and food products through this stronger (FAO-WTO) cooperation,” FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said in remarks at an event at the agency’s headquarters in Rome.

“On the one hand trade is likely to play an increasing role in meeting the growing demand from food-deficit countries. On the other hand, greater trade openness may undermine the capacity of local people to produce their own food,” he added.

Readmore: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52440#.VjhnKLdIsqQ

Food price volatility and financial speculation

Global price of many foods shot to historic highs in 2008. Following a sharp fall thereafter, prices began to rise in 2009, spiking again in 2010. After another decline, prices have again risen sharply in 2012. Price volatility has been unusually high. Many have pointed to major changes in supply and demand conditions as the primary cause. Others identify financial speculators as the culprits. Establishing cause and effect has proven to be impossible. Opinion has become polarised and oppositional.

What is not in dispute is the huge increase in financial investments of various forms in futures markets, including food. Some point to the correlation between these flows and price movements, arguing that some financial speculators (i.e. index funds) increase net demand and therefore prices, while others (i.e. hedge funds) increase volatility. While the correlations are not disputed, the direction of causality is: opponents counter that rising prices have attracted investors, and that food markets have always been characterised by price volatility, and that hedge funds are attracted to volatile markets

This article is available at: http://www.future-agricultures.org/publications/research-and-analysis/working-papers/doc_download/16...

Shaping strategies: factors and actors in climate change adaptation

The findings presented in this report emanate from  a two-year research project exploring household vulnerability and resilience in the context of climate variability and change. The key concern of the research was to contribute to the understanding of how households are experiencing and responding to climate shocks and stressors, what is supporting or undermining their capacity to respond, and whether or not these livelihood responses move them on a path towards becoming more resilient in the face of a changing climate. The report is available: http://www.trocaire.org/sites/trocaire/files/pdfs/policy/climate_change_research_report_2012.pdf:  

Importance of smallholder agriculture in poverty reduction and food security in Africa

Since the the poor and food insecure in Africa live in rural areas, most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. More than 30 percent of the people in sub-Saharan Africa are chronically hungry and are small farmers. Experts predict that the population in Africa will double by 2050, and African nations will have to double their food production just to keep pace with population growth. For the last 20 years, however, food production in Africa has lagged behind population growth, and the source of the problem has been low productivity on Africa’s farms. Link to full article available here.

Sustaning food security through innovation

This paper looks at research about sustaining local food systems, biodiversity and livelihoods. It showcases how farming communities are taking the lead in action research to revive diverse, locally controlled food systems. Full link to paper available here.

Farming Matters - Regional food systems

The latest issue of Farming Matters has considered a number of issues pertaining to food security. Articles show that regional food systems can contribute to increasing food security while at the same time benefiting the environment and increasing the autonomy of farmers. These articles are available at:http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/regional-food-systems

A sustainable livelihoods mainstreaming strategy

This document outlines the major areas of scope whereby the mainstreaming strategy will address the underlying root causes, threats and drivers that affect the achievement of twin conservation and livelihoods goals. These include: Forests and habitat, species, wildlife trade and crime control, freshwater and wetland conservation, response to climate change impact and adaptation measures, and good governance and social inclusion including policy and advocacy for equity and capacity. The document also describes the expected major areas of change and broader impacts that will be brought about after mainstreaming the sustainable livelihoods strategy.This article is available at:http://zunia.org/uploads/media/knowledge/sustainable_livelihood_strategy_low_4_mb_june_20111318138361.pdf

Ecosystems for water and food security

This report gives an overview of the linkages between ecosystems, water, and food security. Furthermore, it explores how to manage ecosystems for a variety of ecosystem services such as provisioning of water and food, and how to manage ecosystems in a sustainable way so they can substantially contribute to enhancing current and future food security and generate regulatory services such as the moderation of extreme events such as floods, droughts and storms, climate regulation and erosion prevention. Full report available from UNEP website.

Global Climate Risk Index 2011

The 2011 report on Climate Risk Index (CRI) has revealed that less developed countries are generally more affected by the impacts of weather-related events than industrialised countries. The Global Climate Risk Index 2011 analyses the extent to which countries have been affected by storms, floods, heat waves and other weather induced occurrences using data collected during the 1990-2009 period. The index uses the number of deaths, sum of losses in US$ in purchasing power parity and of GDP.This article is available at: http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/cri2011.pdf

Africa adaptation programme experiences gender and climate change

This discussion paper focuses on gender and climate change adaptation by highlighting the steps that the Afrcan Adaptation Programme (AAP) is taking to ensure the equal participation of women and all members of society in responding to climate change.This is the first edition of the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) Discussion Paper Series.More details available : http://content.undp.org/go/cms-service/download/publication/?version=live&id=3253640