Climate Exchange

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Climate information services

for food and agriculture

Ramasamy Selvaraju, Climate, Energy and Tenure Division,

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome

griculture constitutes the principal livelihood of 70 per

cent of the world’s poor and is the primary means of their

food security. The rural poor, who depend on agriculture

for sustenance and livelihood, are often vulnerable to the direct

impacts of adverse climate variations. Improving the ability to

provide timely and accurate climate information services for

agriculture presents opportunities for managing climate risks

and for strategic decision-making relevant to climate-resilient

adaptation and food security.

The number of hungry people in the world remains unacceptably

high. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization

(FAO) estimates that a total of 925 million people were under-

nourished in 2010 – 98 million down from 1.02 million in 2009.

The ability of agriculture to reduce the proportion of under-

nourished population and achieve global food security could be

severely affected by increasing climate variability and change.

Smallholder farmers, fishers, livestock herders and forest

dwellers, who contribute to food security, are already suffering

from climate fluctuations. Enhancing their capacities to respond

to a range of current climate risks serves as a basis for reducing

vulnerability and adapting to climate change.

Recent advances in climate prediction have raised exciting

prospects for managing the risks and reducing vulnerability.

Enabling institutions and policies, low-cost information and

communication technologies and vibrant local farmer networks

could complement the advancement in climate, especially by

connecting climate information providers, agriculture support

services and end users.

Achieving food security in a changing context

Agriculture, fisheries and livestock are always at the centre of

deliberations about food security. Changes in climatic conditions,

frequent damage and loss due to extreme weather and climate

events, increasingly scarce water resources, expansion of food

production systems into marginal areas and loss of biodiversity are

some of the major challenges faced by the agriculture sector. The

challenges are becoming prominent and thus agriculture need to

orient itself to increase food production by 60 per cent compared

to 2009 levels to meet the demand of a projected world popula-

tion of 9.1 billion in 2050. Achieving food security in a changing

context warrants a renewed, systemic and integrated approach,

taking into account ecological, economic and social perspectives.

Beyond doubt, climate information services will be one of the tools

to meet the challenges of the future.

griculture

Managing food systems and resources

The provision of needs-based climate information to

farmers can support the management of agriculture

resources (land, water and genetic resources). Better

understanding of the climate in a location provides

opportunities to design various measures to reduce its

impacts on natural resources.

Climate information services are needed for land-

use planning, agro-ecological zoning, sustainable

land management and forest management. Recent

improvements in the provision of advance climate

information allow the earliest identification of land

areas likely to be affected by a specific climate risk.

For instance, monitoring of land degradation, early

warning on areas of concern, and current and future

risk hotspots need specific climate information prod-

ucts for timely decisions.

Demand for water is increasing and putting pressure

on already scarce water resources. Currently, about

a third of the world’s population lives under water

scarcity. Agriculture accounts for about 70 per cent

of all water use worldwide and up to 95 per cent in

many developing countries. The area under irrigation

has increased from 139 million hectares in 1961 to

just over 300 million hectares now.

Given the dominant role of agriculture in water use,

practices that increase water productivity can greatly

enhance the sustainability of agriculture. Climate data

and information should be tailored to benefit water

resources in river basins, including the release of water

depending on seasonal climate outlooks and on-farm

water management to reduce water loss and enhance

water use efficiency. At farm level, decisions such as

area under crops, types and duration of crops, irriga-

tion quantity and timing rely on climate information.

Agricultural biodiversity plays key functions in food

and livelihood security. The understanding of abiotic

and biotic interactions in the context of climate variabil-

ity assists in developing strategies for conserving plant

and animal genetic resources. To understand the effects

of climatic instability on agriculture and the possibilities

of reducing inputs, assessment of crop yield stability

across environments is critical. Climate information

should be considered when selecting suitable locations

for in situ conservation of genetic resources.