Introduction - Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security - page 12

they have for maintaining their livelihood. What
is true at the household level is also true at the
macroeconomic level. There are 32 countries, 20
of them in Africa, facing food crises and in need
of international emergency support. In most of
these countries, paradoxically, agriculture is an
important, if not the major, part of economy.
The objective is to ensure food and nutrition
security, worldwide. Ensuring availability of cal-
ories and suffi cient global production is not
enough; we also need to make sure that enough
food is accessible to everyone, everywhere, phys-
ically and economically. In addition, we need to
ensure that this food is properly utilized in the
right quality and diversity. The goal is to ensure
the stability of these three components of food
and nutrition security: availability, access, and
utilization.
Between now and 2050, the world's popula-
tion will increase by one-third. Most of the addi-
tional 2 billion people will live in developing
countries. At the same time, more people will be
living in cities (70 % against the current 50 %).
Urbanization and rising incomes in developing
countries are driving increases in the consump-
tion of animal products (FAO 2009 ). Given these
trends, FAO estimates that production will have
to increase by 60 % by 2050 to satisfy the
expected demands for food and feed (Conforti
2011 ). Demand for biofuels, another important
factor for the global market, is very dependent on
national policies and global demand is expected
to grow. According to the OECD-FAO projec-
tions, because of increasing mandates and con-
sumption incentives, biofuel production is
expected to double between 2005 and 2019
(OECD 2010 and FAO 2010).
To achieve food security and agricultural
development goals, adaptation to climate change
and lower emission intensities per output will be
necessary. This transformation must be accom-
plished without depletion of the natural resource
base. Climate change is already having an impact
on agriculture and food security as a result of
increased prevalence of extreme events and
increased unpredictability of weather patterns.
This can lead to reductions in production and
lower incomes in vulnerable areas. These changes

countries and smallholder farmers and pastoralists
in particular are being especially hard hit by these
changes. Many of these small-scale producers are
already coping with a degraded natural resource
base. They often lack knowledge about potential
options for adapting their production systems and
have limited assets and risk-taking capacity to
access and use technologies and fi nancial
services.
Enhancing food security while contributing to
mitigate climate change and preserving the natu-
ral resource base and vital ecosystem services
requires the transition to agricultural production
systems that are more productive, use inputs
more effi ciently, have less variability and greater
stability in their outputs, and are more resilient to
risks, shocks, and long-term climate variability.
More productive and more resilient agriculture
requires a major shift in the way land, water, soil
nutrients, and genetic resources are managed to
ensure that these resources are used more effi -
ciently. Making this shift requires considerable
changes in national and local governance, legis-
lation, policies, and fi nancial mechanisms. This
transformation will also involve improving pro-
ducers' access to markets. By reducing green-
house gas emissions per unit of land and/or
agricultural product and increasing carbon sinks,
these changes will contribute signifi cantly to the
mitigation of climate change.

1.5 Climate-Resilient Agriculture

Since climate change poses complex challenges
like multiple abiotic stresses on crops and live-
stock, shortage of water, land degradation, and
loss of biodiversity, a focused and long-term
research is required to fi nd solutions to the prob-
lems. The necessary infrastructure to carry out
basic and strategic research has to be put in place.
At the same time, there is a scope to improve the
resilience of agriculture by application of exist-
ing knowledge and technology on farmers' fi eld
as a holistic package. Hence, there is a need to
develop improved technologies through
short-term and long-term research and also
demonstrate the existing technologies on farm-
ers' fi elds for enhancing the resilience.