Sustainable Solutions for Food Security

More than any other human activity, agriculture is fundamental to the survival and well-being of the human population. In 2016, a total of 2.73 Gt of food grains were produced worldwide. This fundamental food source is alone enough to supply sufficient nutritional kilocalories for the entire global population. And nutrition is supplemented by the many other crops and livestock that are part of the overall food system (FAO 2016). Yet, in the same year, it is estimated that around 815 million people, some 11% of the world’s population were chronically hungry. Moreover, the number was higher (by 38 million) than in the previous year and this rise can largely be attributed to conflict combined with climate effects such as more frequent droughts or floods (FAO 2017). These two issues are also connected. Exacerbated by climate-related shocks, the number of conflicts is on the rise augmenting the challenges of maintaining food security. Indeed, existing household level poverty and, at the macro level, the slowing down of national/regional economies has drained foreign exchange and fiscal revenues, eventually affecting both food availability through reduced import capacity and food access through reduced fiscal space to protect poor households against rising domestic food prices have worsened food security. The global population is expected to increase from 7.6 billion in 2017 to 8.5 billion by 2030, and, perhaps, over 9.5 billion by 2050 (UN). In some regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the population is likely to double by 2050 (PRB 2013). Whilst uncontrolled population growth is posing a major challenge to continuing effort in improving global food security; climate change has begun to pose a formidable threat to our surrounding agro-ecosystem. Based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2014 report, the following schematic diagram shows the cascading effects of climate change on food insecurity (IPCC 2014) (see Fig. 1.1, page 17).

Increased surface temperature is one of the major reasons for reduced crop productivity in many parts of the world. Response to elevated temperature varies among crop species—a certain threshold temperature has been determined for each crop above which it suffers yield losses. Thus, some crop species, e.g. summer crops (cotton, rice, sorghum), are considered relatively more tolerant to high temperature than winter crops (wheat, barley, chickpeas, faba bean). Heat-induced yield penalties in crops are the result of inhibited vegetative growth or impaired reproductive development. High temperature can cause cellular injury, leading to catastrophic collapse of cellular organization and functioning and ultimately, growth inhibition. Similarly, reproductive structures, especially pollen are highly sensitive to elevated temperatures and a heat shock event at reproductive phase impairs fertilisation and consequently increases fruit or seed abortion. Tolerance to high temperature is associated with a range of physiological and morphological adaptations in plants. For example, plants can tolerate heat-induced damage through foliar orientation, stomatal regulation and stimulation of antioxidative defence systems. These adaptive mechanisms are regulated by stress responsive genes, encoding for specific proteins, e.g. heat shock proteins, which enable plants to survive under extreme environments. This chapter discusses various adaptive, avoidance and acclimation mechanisms of heat tolerance in plants. It also highlights the breeding and management techniques used for inducing heat stress tolerance in crop plants.

The increasing demands of world’s population make it mandatory to increase food production. Global climate changes currently threaten this goal, through many adverse conditions, such as water stress by excess (waterlogging or flooding) or scarcity (drought). One alternative to overcome this challenge is the development of stress resilient crops, since an increase in the number of affected areas and the intensity of stress occurring in those, is happening as a consequence of climate changes. Molecular, physiological and epigenetic changes may be key to achieve tolerance to these stresses and are discussed in this chapter.

The advent of climate change, especially the greater frequency of temperature extremes and both erratic and extreme precipitation, will increasingly challenge the ability of maize, wheat and rice agri-food systems to meet growing global demand for food and feed. The challenge to agri-food systems is threefold. First, increasing temperature (especially extreme temperature events) and reduced or erratic rainfall limits the ability of these crops to produce a harvestable product, especially in rain-fed and underdeveloped agri-food systems. Second, industrial agri-food systems are extremely energy intensive and, both directly and indirectly, produce a considerable amount of greenhouse gases, which further exacerbates climate change. Third, changes in temperature and rainfall will require adjustment to cropping geographies and integration of more drought and heat tolerant crops, especially in the predicted climate change hotspots. The good news is that there is significant genetic variation for heat and drought/submergence tolerance in the global maize, wheat and rice gene banks. Either through the application of conventional breeding or the use of new breeding techniques, this genetic diversity offers a way to ameliorate most of the immediate climate change challenges. However, in order to ensure a continuous pipeline of climate-resilient staple crops, it is essential to maintain adequate funding for blue sky and upstream crop breeding, and capacity building of small to medium-sized (SME) seed companies, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Central America.

Rising food demand from a growing global population, combined with a changing climate, endangers global food security. Thus, there is a need to breed new varieties and increase the efficiency and environmental resilience of crops. Past intensification of crop production has primarily been achieved using fertilisers, herbicides and insecticides as well as improved agronomic methods. However, these practices often rely on finite resources and lack sustainability, making them impractical to increase production in the long term. The ongoing revolution in genomics offers an unprecedented potential to aid crops in adapting to changing environments and increase yield, while also facilitating the diversification of crop production with minor and newly established crop species. Identifying the genomic basis of climate-related agronomic traits for introgression into crop germplasm is a major challenge, requiring the integration of sequencing technologies and breeding expertise. Here we review state of the art genomic tools and their application for accelerating crop improvement in the face of climate change.

Rice is the most important crop in the world. It is a staple food for more than half of the human population and a primary food source for the world’s poorest people. Asia currently accounts for 90% of global rice production but it will need to increase this by 50% within the next 30 years. By this time the region will be home to nearly 90% of the global population increase and will likely be experiencing extreme climatic conditions. Agriculture will be challenged by diminishing water resources, reduced nutrient inputs and an increase in abiotic stresses. Rice yield increases have already stagnated and so a new paradigm is needed to meet these future challenges. Most crop plants, like rice and wheat, have a simple and less efficient photosynthetic mechanism (C₃ photosynthesis) that as a consequence results in considerable loss of water through stomatal pores on their leaves that open widely to let in more carbon dioxide. They also make a large amount of photosynthetic protein to maximise their photosynthetic rate that requires a large investment of nitrogen and hence fertiliser application. However, a few plants have evolved a more efficient C₄ photosynthetic pathway that greatly alleviates these problems. The installation of a C₄ photosynthetic pathway into major crops like rice could potentially increase yields by 50%, double the water-use efficiency and reduce fertiliser use by 40%. This is because plants with a C₄ photosynthetic pathway concentrate CO₂ within the leaf prior to photosynthetic fixation leading to increased photosynthetic efficiency and large reductions in the requirement for scarce resources like water and nitrogen (fertiliser). These modifications would be particularly advantageous in future climate scenarios where water scarcity and global temperature are predicted to increase.

Global dependence on only a few crops for food and non-food uses is risky due to the multifaceted challenges that crop production faces. One such challenge is climate change and its effects on food production. Emerging evidence suggests that climate change will cause shifts in crop production areas and yield loss due to more unpredictable and hostile weather patterns. The shrinking list of crops that feed the world, has also been attributed to reported reduced agricultural biodiversity and increased genetic uniformity for yield traits in crop plants. This could lead to crop vulnerability to the dangers of pests and diseases. Part of the solution to these problems lies with crop diversification through a wider use of underutilised and minor crops. Underutilised, minor or neglected crop plants are plant species that are indigenous rather than adapted introductions, which often form a complex part of the culture and diets of the people who grow them. The wider use of underutilised crops would increase agricultural biodiversity (genetic, species and ecosystem) to buffer against crop vulnerability to climate change, pests and diseases and would provide the quality of food and diverse food sources to address both food and nutritional security.

There is evidence to suggest that people are increasingly changing their attitude in favour of crop diversification instead of specialisation on a few major crop species. This chapter provides a background on crop diversification and discusses the potential roles of underutilised crops to address major global concerns such as food and nutrition security, agricultural biodiversity, climate change, environmental degradation and future livelihoods.

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.; www.​bamyield.​org) is a crop similar in morphology and growth habit to groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). It was also historically largely displaced by groundnut upon the latter’s introduction to sub-Saharan Africa from Latin America (Sprent et al. 2010). Bambara groundnut nevertheless still holds local importance in West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and even Southeast Asia (Fig. 8.1). It is held in high esteem for its nutritional qualities by the consumer and its drought tolerance by the farmer (Tables 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3; Fig. 8.2). It could therefore be promoted in areas that are currently drought prone as well as in areas where climate change projections show an increased frequency and intensity in droughts as well as unpredictable rainfall patterns.

In this chapter, we use a modeling approach to answer the question concerning how population growth, income growth, and climate change might affect the ability of the world’s farmers to produce enough food for the planet through the year 2050. We also ask how much the cost will be in terms of land taken from forests and other natural vegetation to be used as cropland. In the analysis, we take into account productivity gains due to technological advances (such as more productive seeds) and changes in input intensity in response to changes in commodity prices.

We discover that climate change creates a drag on productivity increase, resulting in the need to convert more land to agricultural uses. Yet the increase in cropland due strictly to climate change in 2050 will be only 0.8–1.5% of current cropland. More than 80% of the land converted to cropland by 2050 will be due to increased demands from a larger, wealthier population rather than from a changing climate. The greatest percentage increases in cropland will occur in Africa and Latin America, while the largest percentage change in cropland from climate change alone will be in Latin America.

While climate change will lead to an increase in malnutrition and result in lower food security, projected growth in income and overall agricultural production will lead to a decrease in malnutrition that is of greater magnitude than the increase from climate change.

The model presented in this chapter extends to 2050. If greenhouse gas emissions continue at a relatively high rate, the impact of climate change on food and agriculture should increase greatly in the latter half of the century. Therefore, while the outcomes presented in this chapter suggest modestly negative effects by 2050, the threat that climate change presents to global food security should not be discounted for the longer term.

In order to meet the growing needs of the global food system, whilst at the same time mitigating the effects of climate change and other production limiting factors and reducing negative environmental externalities, maize, wheat and rice agri-food systems will be required to sustainably intensify production. In the irrigated systems of developing countries, significant scope exists for increasing water use efficiency through new soil, water and fertiliser management approaches (such as Conservation Agriculture, Direct Seeding, Alternate Wetting and Drying, Site Specific Nutrient Management and Nutrient Expert) and crop diversification. In addition to the development of weather agro-advisory services and weather index insurance, the options available in rain-fed systems differ markedly from those available in irrigated systems, namely, to optimise every drop of available rainfall or to avoid drought stress situations. Whilst breeding for heat tolerance and diversified cropping systems are likely to be the principal short-term responses to increased mean global temperatures and extreme heat events, changes over the longer term are predicted to be quite dramatic, especially with regard to a productive expansion of temperate crops towards the poles. Whilst significant opportunities exist to ameliorate the effects of climate change, these opportunities generally involve risk. In developed countries, the private sector (seed, fertiliser, pesticide, irrigation, credit and insurance suppliers) is generally at hand to advise farmers how to address the challenges posed by climate change. Conversely, in most developing countries, there are few sources of advice and support for smallholder farmers. This situation leaves many smallholder farmers in developing countries without the advice and support that they desperately need. Ultimately, the most vulnerable farmers and communities, namely, smallholder subsistence and market oriented farmers in marginal environments, are those who face the most extreme climate change-related challenges at the same time as being the least able to adapt. Whilst international agricultural research centres (CGIAR), advanced research and development-focused centres of developed countries, and both local and international NGOs strive to both develop and translate evolving crop management approaches; the dissemination of climate smart agricultural practices is extremely slow.

Low productivity is the main characteristic of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Adverse effects of climate change increasingly reduce both productivity and production. Rice plays an important role in the food security of population. However, rice production faces many constraints, including low water control and soil fertility management. In order to improve water control and soil management and increase the productivity of local rice production in the context of climate change, a new technology (smart-valley approach) was introduced in Benin and Togo since 2010. The aim of this study is to assess the adoption, the diffusion and impact of smart-valley approach. Data were collected from 590 rice farming households in Benin and Togo. Results revealed that land tenure, total available area, paddy price and production in the lowland increase the adoption of smart-valley approach. Adoption of smart-valley approach increased from 110 ha in 2012 to 474 ha in 2014. In addition, the adoption enables producers to increase the yield by 0.9 tons ha⁻¹, the net income by USD 267 per hectare under the condition of climate change. The study suggests that large diffusion and training on the technology would help for adaptation to climate change and improving their livelihood of smallholder rice farmers.

Farmers around the world have to cope with the adverse effects of climate change in their efforts to provide food security for themselves and their families and, to the extent possible, for others. Agricultural production methods developed for less-challenging and more-predictable climatic conditions need to be rethought and revised. The ideas and methods that constitute the system of rice intensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar, and now being extrapolated to other crops beyond rice, are enabling farmers to get more production from their available resources by making reductions in seed, water, and agrochemical inputs. Fortuitously, SRI crops are also more resistant and resilient to the hazards of climate change. When SRI methods are used in irrigated rice production, there is also a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The main factors that are contributing to SRI crops’ ability to adapt to and mitigate climate-change effects are the enhancement of the growth and functioning of their root systems and at the same time the abundance and diversity of life forms enhanced in the soil by SRI management. Root systems and the soil biota were both ignored by Green Revolution technology. This chapter reviews what is known about SRI as an agroecological approach to enhancing food security under climate-stressed conditions.

Pricing desalinated water in wetlands can be inefficient whenever positive and negative externalities are not integrated in final prices. Externalities values are usually related to non-market magnitudes, and great difficulties exist for their precise calculation. In order to provide efficient prices, a methodology is proposed in which automatic prices could be directly estimated with the use of the Travel Cost methodology. In this chapter a dynamic model reflecting eventual differences between optimal social prices for environmental uses of desalinated water and private water prices is proposed. This model is based on a short-run dynamic model, in which socially efficient prices are calculated. In order to apply this methodology to real desalinated water problems in wetlands it is suggested that the calculation of the travel cost, along with the value transfer method price for desalinated water should have to be centralized in one office of the park receiving all information from visitors. Direct links of this office with the technical services of the park should have to be established.

Increasing concerns about water scarcity have promoted the adoption and diffusion of irrigation technologies, such as drip irrigation, which allow farmers to use water in a more efficient way, while saving water resources. While some dry regions have embraced drip irrigation, this technology remains scarcely deployed on a global scale. In this chapter we provide an overview of the processes underlying the adoption and diffusion of innovations, with a focus on the specific context of the adoption and diffusion of drip irrigation technology within the agricultural community of Cartagena, in Southeast Spain. Our final aim is to inform policy makers charged with the designing of initiatives aimed at saving water and at increasing climate change resilience in agricultural contexts. Our main insights suggest that effective policies focused on irrigation technology uptake should consider social, economic, technological and environmental factors affecting adoption and diffusion dynamics, and specifically those factors that define perceptions of water scarcity, such as water prices and availability of water.

Fisheries and aquaculture have been identified as important sources of food, nutrition, income and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world. World per capita fish supply has reached 20 kg in 2014. Aquaculture is one of the main contributors that provide a considerable percentage of fish for human consumption. By 2014, fish accounted for about 17% of the global population’s intake of animal protein and 6.7% of all protein consumed. In addition, fish provided more than 3.1 billion people with almost 20% of their average per capita intake of animal protein. Global total capture fishery production in 2014 was 93.4 million metric tons (MT) while aquaculture production is estimated at 73.8 million MT, with a projected first-sale value of US$160.2 billion.

Global shrimp aquaculture production has reached 4.58 MMT in 2014 and may remain at the same level in near future. Shrimp culture makes vital contributions to national and global economies, poverty reduction and food security for the world’s well-being and prosperity. Asia has always led the world production of cultivated shrimps. Expected changes in climate, extreme weather conditions and climatic events, sea level rise, ocean acidification and rise in temperature are expected to create significant impacts on coastal ecosystems and aquaculture in coastal areas. Adaptations for likely impacts of climate change are reachable through better management practices in site selection, pond construction and preparation, selection of post larvae for stocking, pond management, bottom sediment management and disease management together with reducing non-climate stressors such as pollution, conservation of sensitive ecosystems and adoption of dynamic management policies.

Climatic changes and extreme temperature fluctuations have been occurring more frequently with evidences of continuous increase in its intensity. Direct effects of these changes are especially felt by the agricultural industries especially those which are utilizing the natural environmental elements, such as the tea cultivation in the Uji Area. As the oldest and most famous green tea producing region in Japan, teas from the Uji Area owes its reputation to the distinct quality characteristics created through the result of adopting traditional agriculture practices that hold a long heritage. Changes in the climatic conditions, especially temperature fluctuations, have directly affected the perceived quality of the harvested tea leaves in the region, caused by temperature variability during the growth of the first flush tea leaves. The problem is further exacerbated by frost events, drought, heavy rain and temperature extremes which have directly affect the yield of the tea production. Based on the analysis of climatic data and tea production statistics, lower mean air temperature can be correlated with low harvest yield. Observations and surveys conducted in the Uji Area have showed that these changes have not only affected the cultivation processes but also indirectly led to social and economic issues within the tea grower community. It is necessary to develop a new cultivation concept which takes account of the natural environmental elements and agriculture practices, such as the terroir concept which is utilized in French wine industry. By capitalizing on this new concept, the Uji Area tea growers would be able to proactively adapt to the ongoing changes, thus ensuring the sustainability of the Uji Area as a well-known tea growing region.

Urban Agriculture has emerged as a key practice and interdisciplinary subject in an increasingly urban world. Its work ranges from climate and landscape dynamics to new infrastructures including changes in food system, public health, energy model, and urban planning and management. However, it still presents a contradiction between the healthy well-being of the rural realm identified with “nature” and cities as “parasites” and urban phenomena as an assault on nature. The conflict has given room to responses sticking on the division between rural and urban space.

What do we mean by urban agriculture? What is its space and how to work on it? What do we assess? The results of recent practice and research seem to show no relevant spatial features. What “makes the difference” would be the continuity of the resource, the spatial pattern or land mosaics, in time. We do not value the place as much as the relationships the place provides.

The chapter introduces the discussion on the future role of agrarian space in the conurbation of Barcelona to present and discuss urban agriculture as a key meaningful activity to reshape and rethink old land mosaics as new contemporary cultural landscapes: the opportunity of rural space with urban relationships. From a “city region perspective”, the model could allow for important implications for resilience by design, combining landscape architecture, infrastructure planning, civil engineering, urban ecology, economics and the arts.

Till date, successful community-based climate change adaptation projects and programs are rare; rather, the resentment and frustration among the local populace are ever increasing. Community-based climate change adaptation programs become nothing more than a trap to circumvent the local communities to get some plans sanctioned, encoded by the external agencies. The reason is that participation is not a simple, straightforward notion. In this chapter, it is argued that given manifold comprehension of participation, its unshackled, combative frameworks and numerous as well as dubious operation methods and techniques, the actual implementation of the participatory projects and programs is in the hand of implementation agencies. Their willingness, understanding, skills, and capacities determine to a great extent how successfully local communities can be engaged in the climate change adaptation programs. If the community’s participation in climate change adaptation projects needs to be enhanced, it is critical to explore how stakeholders including government officials, technocrats, project managers, and donor agencies conceptualize and idealize community participation. But, in climate change adaptation studies, no such initiative has ever been made. This chapter aims to identify stakeholders’ perspectives on effective ways, steps and factors for ensuring effective community participation in climate change adaptation programs and projects based on a case study in the Wa West district of Northern Ghana. We interviewed key stakeholders including government and non-government official involved in various climate change adaptation programs.

Traditional subsistence farming is an important part of rural society, the yield is a measure of the main source of food to maintain health and livelihoods of rural households. This chapter chiefly investigated the food security issues in AtoinMeto, a subsistence community in semi-arid West Timor, Indonesia. It discusses the concept of subsistence living from the perspective of food sovereignty and food security. Data were collected in Kupang and Timor Tengah Selatan Regencies in West Timor, via mixed-methods of participant observations, and both quantitative household surveys, and in-depth key informant interviews..

This study found that local knowledge and values of AtoinMeto is founded on their existing clan regime and emotionally bonded moral values. This community maintains food sovereignty without overly using the local resources: following seasonal cycles to grow staple food (self-sufficient) and earn cash income via multiple activities within and outside the community to offset declining food stock. However, the system has weaknesses and to support their adaptation to climate change, this chapter suggests three solutions to enhance their food production, improve nutritional value of local diets and develop their ability to market produce.

The findings of this study imply that, in order to attain sustainable food security for the disadvantaged subsistence community, it is vital that any solutions link to the existing community’s knowledge of and values within the cycle of food production and resource use. International organisations and governments must consider this important point and answer the question: How to apply collaborations between technology and local knowledge to the development process?

The reality of climate change, and the expectation that agricultural production systems will need to adapt in response to it are now largely accepted by the Australian agricultural policy community. However, the effect of Australia’s market-oriented agricultural policy is to delink the matter of adaptation from questions of Australian food security: national food security is considered assured by national income and global trade and food security is framed as the contribution that Australian farmers and agricultural technologists can make to the food security of others elsewhere in the world. Adaptation in this view is the process of farming system innovation, undertaken at individual enterprise scale, that allows Australian farm enterprises to remain profitable and globally competitive, even as environmental conditions change and on-farm vulnerabilities increase.

In this chapter, we argue that Australia’s export-focused agricultural policy and more general assumptions of domestic food security result in the framing of adaptation as a technical process located at the scale of the farming enterprise and that this framing ignores important threats to Australian food security, in particular at the household scale. In fact, food producers and the rural communities where they live are themselves amongst the most vulnerable. In our reading, climate change is just one of the conditions creating this vulnerability for Australian rural communities, and adaptation must be understood in the context of multiple pressures that threaten the ability of farmers to carry on farming. This includes the volatility and competitiveness of both domestic and export markets and the concentration of market power at key stages of agricultural value chains.

Climate services such as agricultural decision support tools provide a link between climate information and agricultural practices for farmers, with a goal of improving best management practices and agricultural sustainability through the useful presentation of climate variability and change. Independent organizations throughout the world have developed tools to meet their region’s specific needs, and these tools are generally commodity or issue specific. The Cornell Climate Smart Farming Program, an interdisciplinary program of the Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions (CICSS), has developed a website and suite of climate-based agricultural decision support tools aimed at helping farmers make more informed decisions in the face of increasing climate uncertainty. Specific tools were developed based on the major climate impacts to Northeastern US agriculture and through a collaborative development process with stakeholders, researchers, and the Northeast Regional Climate Center. Through this process, CICSS performed a review of decision tools on a national and international scale, and in this text the role and impact of decision support tools are examined, along with the ability of researchers and tool developers to learn from stakeholders and share information via extension specialists. The need for monitoring, evaluation, and coordination among regional programs and organizations is also discussed.

The vulnerability of food supply chains to climate change is higher compared to other industries due to its dependency on climatic conditions, temperature and water supply. As a robust response to the vulnerability of food supply chains, it is essential to find ways of linking the concepts of sustainable development, climate change adaptation and risk governance into one paradigm. The risk governance of food supply chains is conducted by and across both private and public spheres. Hence, in this chapter, we introduce a dual system of governance to match the objectives of climate change adaptation, and discuss the multiplicity and potential integration of both corporate-led private governance and public governance based on the authority of governments and their institutions. The aim of this chapter is to highlight climate change adaptation in relation to the practices of risk governance of the food supply chains within a multilevel framework of private and public policies. It explores the outlook of climate change adaptation in food supply chains, probing the extent to which governance should be framed as an intergovernmental issue, a national/local issue, an upstream supply chain issue or a downstream supply chain issue. The study is carried out by delving into the international adaptation literature with focus on different levels of framing the food supply chain and its adaptation to climate. We conclude that it is important to marry the efficiency of food businesses with the attainment of wider societal objectives such as sustainable development, climate change adaptation and food security, in order to increase resilience of the overall food system.

India has made rapid strides in improving food production and the country has become not only self-sufficient in food production, but now exports to several other countries as well. However, climate change has emerged as a major threat to India’s hard-earned success. Much of India’s population depends on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, forestry, and fishing, and thus the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people are at risk. In fact, the country has already witnessed adverse impacts of climate change on food production, transportation, storage, and distribution. Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, extreme weather conditions (such as prolonged droughts and floods), changing soil fertility, and new pest infestations are major factors contributing to stagnant agricultural growth. “Climate-smart agriculture” is considered a pragmatic approach to ensuring food security in a changing climate. Adaptation strategies based on the principles of climate-smart agriculture can counter the impacts of climate change, such as the promotion of conservation agriculture, the sustainable management of natural resources and the promotion of climate-smart crops. However, the existing problems of transboundary water conflict, universal insurance of crops, the significant reduction in food wastage needed and the improvement of food distribution are essential to achieving the goals for adaptation. It is also important to note that ready acceptance of “climate-smart agriculture” by farmers cannot be expected, even if the necessary technologies are made accessible to them. Rather, more community-based participatory research is needed to explore socioeconomic and location-specific variables that are influencing farmers’ preferences towards the approach.

In recent years, we have witnessed far reaching changes in climate around the world and the impact on local weather is already beginning to have an impact on food security. In this context, actions directed toward adaptation are believed to be feasible and necessary to ensure risk reduction. The suggested adaptation actions needed to sustain food security in the changing climate can take many forms, some of which are very complex. Most focus in large part on production. Emerging research, however, suggests that there is a need to consider broader perspectives of food security as we move into an era of changing climate (Campbell et al., 2016).