Implications of and possible responses to climate change

Climate change is expected to worsen food insecurity and seriously undermines rural development prospects. It makes it harder to achieve the Millenium Development Goals and ensure a sustainable future beyond 2015. Findings from the recent 4th assessment report of IPCC, Working Group II indicate that already towards 2050 with respect to food crops yield losses between 10 and 30 % can be expected as compared to current conditions in large parts of Africa, including Western, Eastern and southern Africa. Climate change is likely to increase disparities between developed and the developing world, while many uncertainties remain. It is, for instance, estimated that developing countries would need to bear 75-80 % of the costs of damages caused by a changing climate. The prevention of such threats cannot rely on economic growth, but requires climate policies that combine enhancement of development with reduction of vulnerabilities and effective financing mechanisms that support the transition to low-carbon economics. The major strategies to reduce the potentially harmful effects of global changes, especially climate change are 1) adaptation of food and farming systems to climate change, 2) enhancing their resilience and adaptive capacity to changes in climate variability and extremes that are difficult to predict, and to global change more generally (including socio-economic changes), and 3) mitigation of climate change and trading the options to mitigate in low-income countries on the global carbon markets to create a substantial financial flow from the North to the South

Sustainable rural development with emphasis on agriculture and food security within the climate change setting : SARD-climate final report

Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development (SARD) is considered an essential step toward achieving the first Millenium Development Goal (MDG) of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty. In order to achieve this important goal, first it is important to find ways of increasing the incomes of the rural poor, who mostly depend on upon agriculture for their livelihoods. This means improving development, cooperation, trade and agricultural policy to improve agriculture's contribution to economic development and poverty reduction. Current projects estimate that 1.02 billion people will go hungry in 2009 alone; an indication that if efforts are not directed at reversing this trend it would most likely continue. The research on climate change effect on productivity and rural development is scarce. The high uncertainty of climate change effects and the implications on agriculture is based on extrapolations and scenarios. Our knowledge on local environmental issues and agriculture is insufficient and local agricultural research data do mostly not exist. The agricultural sector requires investments and incentives that can guarantee sustainable development. Farmers need credit possibilities in order to buy input, to make investments and to finance adaptation measures. Fair Trade certification offers one way to guarantee minimum prices for farmers

CropM - progress overview

Activities in the first 1 ½ years of CropM were related to key issues identified as critical at the beginning of the FACCE MACSUR the knowledge Hub. These include: Model intercomparison,Generation of new data for model improvement, Methods for scaling and model linking, Uncertainty analysis, Building research capacity, Climate scenario data for crop models. The key ambition of CropM has been to develop scientific excellence on methods for a comprehensive assessment of climate change impact, adaptation and policy on European crop production, agriculture and food security. Much progress has been made in developing a first shared continental assessment and tool for: A range of important crops, Important crop rotations, Advanced scaling methods, Advanced link to farm and sector models, Novel impact uncertainty assessment and reporting, State-of-the-art scenario construction. A number of concrete studies towards this aim have been launched in CropM workpackages (WPs): WP1-2: Two multi-facetted studies on crop rotation, launched in summer 2013, WP3: comprehensive scaling exercises, launched in March 2013, WP4: Studies on (a) Climate scenario development, (b) impact response surface method and (c) Extremes, launched in summer 2013, WP5: Analysis of transect across Europe with temperature effect (Space for Time). In addition, extended activities related to capacity building including several PhD courses (WP5) workshops (in WPs1-4) and an International Symposium (10-12 Feb, Oslo, Norway) have been organized. Present and future work is and will be focused on framing and advancing crop modelling as integrated part of comprehensive climate risk assessment and modelling of agricultural systems for food security from farm to supra-national level

Quantifying current and future climatic risks to cereal production in Ethiopia as a basis for informing adaptation

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Exploring potential of carbon trading to enhance food security in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Psychologische Aspekte analytischen Hörens

Die vorliegende Untersuchung ist ein Ausschnitt aus einer größeren psychophysiologischen Studie, die sich mit den Auswirkungen analytischen Hörens auf das emotionale Erleben von Musik befaßte. In diesem Rahmen beschränkt sich der Autor auf eines der Versuchsdesigns und stellt nur die Beobachtungen auf der psychologischen Ebene dar. (DIPF/Orig.