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Multidisciplinary institutions need to develop, use and sustain ICT innovations for linking research, extension and markets, thereby bringing research into practic

Integrated Assessments of the Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture: An Overview of AgMIP Regional Research in South Asia

South Asia encompasses a wide and highly varied geographic region, and includes climate zones ranging from the mountainous Himalayan territory to the tropical lowland and coastal zones along alluvial floodplains. The region's climate is dominated by a monsoonal circulation that heralds the arrival of seasonal rainfall, upon which much of the regional agriculture relies. The spatial and temporal distribution of this rainfall is, however, not uniform over the region. Northern South Asia, central India, and the west coast receive much of their rainfall during the southwest monsoon season, between June and September. These rains partly result from the moisture transport accompanying the monsoonal winds, which move in the southwesterly direction from the equatorial Indian Ocean. Regions further south, such as south/southeast India and Sri Lanka, may receive rains from both the southwest monsoon, and also during the northeast monsoon season between October and December (with northeasterly monsoon wind flow and moisture flux), which results in a bi- or multi-modal rainfall distribution. In addition, rainfall across South Asia displays a large amount of intraseasonal and interannual variability. Interannual variability is influenced by many drivers, both natural (e.g., El Ni-Southern Oscillation; ENSO) and man-made (e.g., rising temperatures due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations), and it is challenging to obtaining accurate time-series of annual rainfall, even amongst various observed data products, which display inconsistencies amongst themselves. These climatic and rainfall variations can further complicate South Asia's agricultural and water management. Agriculture employs at least 65 of the workforce in most South Asian countries, and nearly 80 of South Asia's poor inhabit rural areas. Understanding the response of current agricultural production to climate variability and future climate change is of utmost importance in securing food and livelihoods for South Asia's growing population. In order to assess the future of food and livelihood security across South Asia, the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) has undertaken integrated climate-crop-economic assessments of the impact of climate change on food security and poverty in South Asia, encompassing Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. AgMIP has funded, on a competitive basis, four South Asian regional research teams (RRTs) and one South Asian coordination team (CT) to undertake climate-crop-economic integrated assessments of food security for many districts in each of these countries, with the goal of characterizing the state of food security and poverty across the region, and projecting how these are subject to change under future climate change conditions

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP): Integrated regional assessment projects

The following sections are included: Introduction. AgMIP Structure and Scientific Approach. AgMIP Regional Activities. AgMIP Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Projects. Climate change impacts on West African Agriculture (CIWARA) — A regional assessment. Impacts of climate variability and change on agricultural systems in Eastern Africa while enhancing the region's capacity to undertake integrated assessment of vulnerabilities to future changes in climate. Southern Africa Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (SAAMIIP). Crop-livestock intensification in the face of climate change: Exploring opportunities to reduce risk and increase resilience in Southern Africa using an integrated multi-modeling approach. Knowledge enhancement for modeling in climate change: Capacity-building in Southern, Western, and Eastern Africa. AgMIP South Asia Regional Projects. Assessing climatic vulnerability and projecting crop productivity using integrated crop and economic modeling techniques. Strengthening simulation approaches for understanding, projecting, and managing climate risks in stress-prone environments across the central and Eastern Indo-Gangetic Basin. Integrated assessment of climate change impacts on principal crops and farm household incomes in Southern India. Modeling the impacts of a variable and changing climate on rice and sugarcane agricultural systems in Sri Lanka. Enhancing capacities of the AgMIP South Asia regional teams through capacity-building workshops and knowledge-sharing platforms. Conclusions. Acknowledgments. Reference

White Paper: Shifting the goal post - from high impact journals to high impact data

The purpose of this white paper is to provide an overview of the ongoing initiatives at center level to respond to changing public expectations and to the challenge of improving the conduct of science by making research data widely available. We also attempt to provide a framework for implementing open access for research data to maximize CGIAR’s impact on development. The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows; firstly a summary of the diversity of research data produced by the centers is given, followed by an overview of the existing infrastructure for data management for each Center. Secondly, some of the limitations and barriers faced by the centers in their process to mainstream research data publishing are addressed. The paper concludes with recommendations for how these limitations and barriers can be tackled