Cambio climático mundial y cadenas de suministro de alimentos: políticas para la adaptación colectiva

Según predicciones de modelos climáticos, la mayor parte de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) experimentará aumentos significativos de temperatura y cambios en la precipitación para el 2050. En Guatemala, Colombia y Jamaica, por ejemplo, estos cambios plantearán serios desafíos para las cadenas de suministro de alimentos frente a la creciente demanda. Si se deja rezagar la producción de cultivos, esto no solamente reducirá los ingresos nacionales y el crecimiento del sector privado, sino que además pondrá en riesgo la seguridad alimentaria y los medios de vida de miles de pequeños agricultores. Los responsables de formular las políticas deben empezar desde ahora a minimizar los impactos socioeconómicos del cambio climático mediante un esfuerzo coordinado para identificar opciones proactivas de adaptación, que tengan en cuenta los diferentes grados de vulnerabilidad en todas partes, cultivos, cadenas de suministro y culturas

Global climate change and food supply chains: policies for collective adaptation

According to climate model predictions, most parts of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) will see significant temperature increases and changes in precipitation by 2050. In Guatemala, Colombia, and Jamaica, for example, such shifts will pose serious challenges for food supply chains in the face of increasing demand. If crop production is allowed to fall behind, this will not only lower national income and private sector growth but also jeopardize the food security and livelihoods of thousands of smallholder farmers. Policy makers must begin now to minimize the socio-economic impacts of climate change through a coordinated effort to identify pro-active options for adaptation, which take into account the different impacts and degrees of vulnerability across locations, crops, supply chains, and cultures

Workshop report: Playing out transformative adaptation in Usambara, Tanzania

This report documents the information collected during the participatory workshop hosted by The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in partnership with the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) and Lushoto District Office in the CCAFS site of Usambara Tanzania. This workshop was conducted as part of the CCAFS project “Playing out transformative adaptation in CCAFS benchmark sites in East-Africa: ‘When, where, how and with whom?’ which seeks to identify and understand, through integrated agricultural research, the adaptation process in the CCAFS benchmark site of Usambara, Tanzania. The workshop included farmers from various villages in the CCAFS site, who discussed agricultural practices and perceptions of climate change/variability. The workshop started off with an introduction/icebreaker, after which historical calendars, a discussion of crop suitability and baseline data and gender questions followed. Finally a vision for the future was made, in which the groups were asked to say what they would like to see in the future concerning climate change, food security and gender. The introduction/icebreaker and the general presentation of results were done in a large group but smaller groups were formed to do the historical calendars and to discuss crop suitability and baseline data as well as the gender questions. Most of the small groups were divided by gender, typically with two men’s groups and two women’s groups. In general it can be stated that the farmer is aware of a changing climate and the (negative) consequences this brings about. Furthermore there are differences in perspectives between men and women on the division of tasks and on the household decisionmaking process. Concerning the vision of the future, many farmers let us know that they would like to see more extended information and capacitation on climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies

Tortillas on the roaster: Central America’s maize–bean systems and the changing climate

Maize and beans are a vital component of human diets and culture in Central America. More than a million smallholder families grow these crops for subsistence, producing 70% of the maize and 100% of the beans consumed locally. Average yields are low, however – 1.5 t/ha for maize and 0.7 t/ha for beans – on the approximately 2.5 million hectares of land sown to these crops (40% of the total area harvested) in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In the years to come, a harsher climate together with soil degradation1, widespread poverty, and rural people’s limited access to services and infrastructure will pose challenging obstacles to production. By 2025, these pressures could result in total annual losses of maize and bean production in the four countries of around 350,000 t – with a gross production value of around US$120 million. To ward off this threat to the food security of some 100,000 households, effective adaptation strategies must be developed in collaboration with stakeholders in the maize and bean value chains. These strategies require strong public support and must draw on both scientific and community knowledge

Future agroclimatic conditions and implications for European grasslands.

Grasslands play a significant role in livestock fodder production and thus, contribute to food security worldwide while providing numerous additional ecosystem services. However, how agroclimatic conditions and adverse weather events relevant for grasslands will change across the European grassland areas has not been examined to date. Using a single reference setup for soil and management over 476 European sites defined by climate stations, we show the probability of eight selected adverse weather events with the potential to significantly affect grassland productivity under climate change and how these events vary regionally across Europe. Changes in these eight key agroclimatic indicators create markedly specific spatial patterns. We found that by 2050, the exposure of the south and west European grasslands to heat and drought may double in comparison with today and that the area with frequent occurrences of heat and drought will expand northwards. However, across Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic countries to southern Finland and Sweden, the likelihood of these events is likely to decrease. While changing cultivars and management strategies are unavoidable, shifting grassland production to other regions to reduce the risk may not be possible as the risk of adverse events beyond the key grassland-growing areas increases even further. Moreover, we found marked changes in the overall thermal and water regimes across European regions. The effect of adverse weather events in the future could be different in other regions of the world compared to regions in Europe, emphasizing the importance of conducting similar analyses for other major grassland producing regions. To mitigate the impact of climate change, new ways of maintaining grassland productivity need to be developed. These methods include more efficient selection of species mixtures for specific regions, including increased use of legumes and forbs; incorporation of new genetic resources, including the development of hybrid cultivars, such as Festulolium hybrids; and incorporation of state-of-the-art technologies in breeding programs and new grazing management

Tortillas en el comal: los sistemas de maíz y fríjol de América Central y el cambio climático

El maíz y el fríjol son un componente vital de las dietas alimenticias de los humanos y la cultura en América Central. Más de un millón de familias de pequeños agricultores siembran estos cultivos para su subsistencia y producen el 70% del maíz y 100% del fríjol que se consume localmente. Sin embargo, los rendimientos promedio son bajos —1.5 t/ha para maíz y 0.7 t/ha para fríjol — en las cerca de 2.5 millones de hectáreas de tierra sembradas con estos cultivos (40% del área total cosechada) en El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua. En los próximos años, el cambio climático junto con la degradación del suelo, la pobreza generalizada y el acceso limitado de la población rural a servicios e infraestructura plantearán obstáculos desafiantes para la producción. Para el 2025, estas presiones podrían producir pérdidas anuales totales de la producción de maíz y fríjol en los cuatro países de alrededor de 350.000 t — con un valor bruto de producción cercano a US$120 millones. Para detener esta amenaza para la seguridad alimentaria de alrededor de 100.000 hogares, se deben desarrollar unas estrategias de adaptación efectivas en colaboración con los interesados directos de las cadenas de valor del maíz y el fríjol. Estas estrategias requieren un apoyo público firme y deben aprovechar tanto el conocimiento científico como el saber de las comunidades

Unveiling the impact of a CF2 motif in the isothiourea catalyst skeleton : evaluating C(3)-F2-HBTM and its catalytic activity

The St Andrews Team (A. D. S., K. K., M. T. W.) thanks the EaSI-CAT centre for Doctoral Training (MTW) and the EPSRC (EP/T023643/1; KK). The Linz team (L. S., A. E., M. W.) gratefully acknowledges generous financial support by the Austrian Science Funds (FWF) through project No. P31784, the Erasmus+ program and the JKU Linz/Upper Austria scheme. The Madrid team (J. A. F.-S., J. A., R. d. R-R.) gratefully acknowledges the Spanish Government (RTI2018-095038-B-100), “Communidad de Madrid” for European Structural Funds (S2018/NMT-4367) and proyectos sinergicos I + D (Y2020/NMT-6469) for funding. J. A. F.-S. thanks the Spanish government for a Ramón y Cajal contract.The incorporation of the CF2 motif within organic structures is known to affect the susceptibility of functional groups to oxidation, as well as altering conformation and reactivity. In this manuscript, the incorporation of the CF2 functional group within an isothiourea catalyst skeleton to give C(3)-F2-HBTM is reported. Effective gram-scale routes to both racemic and enantiopure heterocyclic Lewis bases are developed, with preliminary catalytic and kinetic activity evaluated.Peer reviewe

Hoima (Uganda) CSV Monitoring Summary 2018: CSA Adoption and perceived livelihoods and gender effects.

This progress report summarizes the key results from the CSV monitoring undertaken in 2018 in the Hoima Climate-Smart village (Uganda). It focuses on the levels of CSA implementation and gender-disaggregated perceived effects of CSA practices on households livelihoods and gender dimension