Topic: agriculture

How can the world adequately feed more than 9 billion people by 2050 in a manner that advances economic development and reduces pressure on the environment? This is one of the paramount questions the world faces over the next four decades. “The Great Balancing Act” seeks to start answering this question by exploring the scope of the challenge and proposing a menu of potential solutions. This working paper is the first in a series that forms the foundation of the “World Resources Report 2013-14: Creating a Sustainable Food Future.”

This case study documents the issues related to accessing, processing, and applying climate information in order to help farming communities take robust, low-risk agricultural adaptation measures. The study focuses on central India’s Bundelkhand region, which straddles the provinces of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Challenging climatic conditions, limited arable land, intense population pressures and a history of political upheaval have undermined Niger’s development prospects – 60% of its people live on less than $1 per day. Over the past twenty years, however, Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), in combination with other improved soil and water conservation practices, has helped improve the plight of Nigerien farmers. Local communities are moving from vulnerability towards greater resilience as FMNR brings increased crop production, income and food security to impoverished rural communities.

Climate change vulnerability and food insecurity often have common root causes. Accordingly, measures that address these causes can reduce both problems at once. This is especially important for the many countries in sub-Saharan Africa that face truly daunting agricultural challenge.