Overview
Faced with significant changes in weather patterns, many countries now have a keen interest in confronting climate change, particularly as food demand is rising along with world population. With some countries facing the stark scenario of having less water, reduced irrigation, and less effective fertilization for key crops, the outlook is growing particularly alarming. International efforts to limit greenhouse gases and, in the process, to mitigate climate change now and in the future, will not be sufficient to prevent the harmful effects of temperature increases, changes in precipitation, and increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events. At the same time, climate change can also create opportunities, particularly in the agricultural sector. Increased temperatures can lengthen growing seasons, higher carbon dioxide concentrations can enhance plant growth, and in some areas rainfall and the availability of water resources can increase as a result of climate change. This is not merely an academic exercise: climate change is already under way in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region and it is accelerating. This creates a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity to take meaningful action to mitigate its impacts and to take advantage of potential benefits. Further, as the results of the present study show, building resilience in the agriculture sector has both short- and long-term benefits. As a result, many of the highest priority measures for adapting to climate change yield immediate gains in agriculture sector productivity, demonstrating that pursuit of agricultural adaptation goals is often consistent with pursuit of economic development goals. Agricultural production is inextricably tied to climate, making agriculture one of the most climate-sensitive of all economic sectors (IPCC 2007). In many countries, such as the four examined in this work, the risks of climate change for the agricultural sector are a particularly immediate and important problem because the majority of the rural population depends either directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. The rural poor will be disproportionately affected because of their greater dependence on agriculture, their relatively lower ability to adapt, and the high share of income they spend on food. Therefore, climate impacts could undermine progress that has been made in poverty Looking Beyond the Horizon • http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-9768-8
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