Impact of High Food and Oil Prices on the Achievement of MDG 1 in Asia and the Pacific

UNESCAP 2011/09/19

This working paper analyses the effects of the high food prices of 2010 on income poverty and the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 1 (eradication of extreme poverty and hunger) in Asia and the Pacific. It also investigates several scenarios for 2011 to predict the impact that food and oil prices may have on poverty. In 2010, higher food prices were found not to have increased poverty, but to have slowed down poverty reduction.

Effect of Policy Interventions on Food Security in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Anne van der Veen and Tagel Gebrehiwot

Ecology and Society 2011/09/07

Following the design of a conservation-based agricultural development strategy and food security strategy, the Tigray government has implemented different pro-poor development programs over the past years to address the problems of food security.

Can humanity improve its agriculture for food security?

Al Jazeera 2011/09/07

Research indicates that agriculture is vastly depleting the planet of its biodiversity and ecosystems. According to United Nations estimations over 20% of the worlds cultivated soil has been significantly degraded.

Artificial rain project in Horn of Africa

The Peninsula Qatar 2011/09/07

Qatar may sponsor an artificial rain campaign called 'Rainaid' launched by a company Aquiess. The project is estimated to cost $10 million to bring artificial rain in the Horn of Africa region using the Oceanic Rainfall Acquisition (ORA) technology.

OECD FAO Agricultural Outlook 2011

OECD 2011/06/20

A good harvest in the coming months should push commodity prices down from the extreme levels seen earlier this year. However, the Outlook states that over the coming decade real prices for cereals could average as much as 20% higher and those for meats as much as 30% higher, compared to 2001-10.

Rural Poverty Report 2011

IFAD 2011/06/20

The Rural Poverty Report 2011 provides a coherent and comprehensive look atrural poverty, its global consequences and the prospects for eradicating it. Released on 6 December 2010, the report contains updated estimates by IFAD regarding how many rural poor people there are in the developing world, poverty rates in rural areas, and the percentage of poor people residing in rural areas.

Climate Smart Agriculture

CGIAR 2011/06/14

Agriculture needs to feed 9 billion people by 2050. This will require a 70–100% increase in food production (Godfray et al. 2010). Given climate change, a new kind of agriculture is therefore essential, one that must meet the triple challenge not only of ensuring food security, but also of adapting to future climate change and contributing to climate change mitigation.

Water in food security assessment

Josephine Tucker, Leulseged Yirgu

Ripple Ethiopia 2011/05/31

This paper is based on a literature review on the role of water in drought preparedness, early warning systems and responses. Literature reviewed includes vulnerability assessment reports and evaluations of drought responses from sub-Saharan Africa over the last ten years, as well as insights gathered from interviews and a workshop with relevant stakeholders in Ethiopia in the form of a country case study.

IFAD Guidelines For Disaster Recovery

IFAD 2011/05/26

The IFAD Guidelines for Disaster Early Recovery have been developed to support IFAD staff in implementing timely and effective interventions in a post-disaster context. The Guidelines are designed to operationalize the existing IFAD Framework for Bridging Post-Crisis Recovery and Long-term Development (1998) and the IFAD Policy on Crisis Prevention and Recovery (2006), and are based on IFAD experience in disaster response and recovery programmes and projects.

Framework for assessing and monitoring forest governance

FAO

FAO 2011/05/24

The need for a comprehensive analytical framework to diagnose,assess and monitor forest governance is widely recognized among forest stakeholders. The quality of governance often determines whether forest resources are used efficiently, sustainably and equitably, and whether countries achieve forest-related development goals. Poor forest governance has ripple effects and often reflects overall weakness in governance within a country.

Keeping Forest as Forest: Incentives for the U.S. South

WRI Issue Brief

World Resources Institute (WRI) 2011

Forests of the southern United States provide a wide variety of benefits—collectively known as “ecosystem services”—to people, communities, and businesses. For example, they provide timber, help purify water, control soil erosion, help regulate climate by sequestering carbon, and offer outdoor recreation, hunting, and fishing opportunities.

Keywords: environment, natural resources, climate change, united states, ecosystem, soil, water, carbon, fish, people

Capacity Development for Environmental Management in the Agricultural Sector in Developing Countries

OECD 2011/01/03

The relationships between agriculture, the environment, and development are deep and complex. By 2050 a 70 per cent increase in production will be needed to feed an additional 2.7 billion people on an already degraded natural resource base. In light of this and amid the realities of climate change, the agricultural sector is now coming to terms with its potential role for contributing to � rather than diminishing - environmental, institutional, social and economic resilience. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of environmental management and governance in the agricultural sector; to present environmental goals, requirements, entry points, and strategies/approaches to capacity development for the environment in this sector; and to discuss implications for donors.

Keywords: environment, natural resources, climate change, agriculture, multiple, country, organisation, governance, capacity, development

Fact sheet: Reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries: approaches to stimulate action

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNFCCC 2010/10

Global forest covers around 30 per cent of the Earth’s land surface (nearly 4 billion hectares).Forests provide valuable ecosystem services and goods, serve as a habitat for a wide range of flora and fauna and hold a significant standing stock of global carbon. The total carbon content of forests has been estimated at 638 Gt for 2005, which is more than the amount of carbon in the entire atmosphere.

Keywords: environment, natural resources, climate change, habitat, forest, flora, fauna, atmosphere

Food Security, Farming, and Climate Change to 2050: Scenarios, Results, Policy Options

Gerald C. Nelson, Mark W. Rosegrant, Amanda Palazzo, Ian Gray, Christina Ingersoll, Richard Robertson, Simla Tokgoz, Tingju Zhu, Timothy B. Sulser, Claudia Ringler, Siwa Msangi, and Liangzhi You

IFPRI 2010

By 2050, the world’s population is likely to reach 9 billion. Most of these people are expected to live in developing countries and have higher incomes than currently is the case, which will result in increased demand for food. In the best of circumstances, the challenge of meeting this demand in a sustainable manner will be enormous. When one takes into account the effects of climate change (higher temperatures, shifting seasons, more frequent and extreme weather events, flooding, and drought) on food production, that challenge grows even more daunting. The 2010 floods in Pakistan and excessive heat and drought in Russia that resulted in wildfires and a grain embargo are harbingers of a troubled future for global food security.

Reproduced with permission from the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords: environment, natural resources, climate change, sustainable, Pakistan, floods, garin, future

Climate Change Impacts on Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Claudia Ringler, Tingju Zhu, Ximing Cai, Jawoo Koo and Dingbao Wang

IFPRI 2010/12

Climate change impacts vary significantly, depending on the scenario and the Global Circulation Model chosen. This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on past performance, the effects of temperature and precipitation across the 17 GCMs are incorporated into a global hydrological model that is linked with IFPRI’s IMPACT water and food projections model to assess the effects of climate change on food outcomes for the region. For Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper finds that the CCC scenario predicts consistently higher temperatures and mixed precipitation changes for the 2050 period. Compared to historic climate scenarios, climate change will lead to changes in yield and area growth, higher food prices and therefore lower affordability of food, reduced calorie availability, and growing childhood malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Reproduced with permission from the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords: environment, natural resources, climate change, hydrology, crop yield, food security, Sub-Saharan Africa