Climate change is one of the major threats to the development of rural Africa, and without wide-ranging adaptation strategies the challenge it presents cannot be met. Although appropriate measures have been identi? ed, international funding for adaptation has not materialised at the rate that was pledged. This is irresponsibly delaying the implementation of adaptation measures.

Migration is a huge phenomenon. The share of migrants in industrial countries’ populations doubled over the past three decades, and remittances ? ows to developing countries are larger than foreign investment or overseas aid. In many developing countries the percentage of the population working abroad and the percentage of Global Domestic Product (GDP) represented by remittances run into double digits.

Surveys over several years in the Kagera region of Tanzania have shown that migration has a positive impact on people's living standards, even for those who remain in agriculture. On the other hand, there is evidence of migrants ending up in unfavourable social environments and perhaps even that the traditional home communities are protecting their livelihood and survival by setting up subtle exit barriers, in the form of norms, preventing migration of their most productive members. So, should migration be encouraged at all costs?

In today’s China, about 220 million rural migrant workers are on the move – this is more than two thirds of the US population – and their number is set to increase in the course of the country’s urbanisation process. At a rate of 47 percent, still below global average, and against the backdrop of a marked rural-urban divide, urbanisation is not only an effect of rapid economic development, but also forms part of the Chinese government’s economic development strategy.

In rural areas of many developing countries fuelwood constitutes the only energy source – often with negative impacts on humans and the environment. Wise management and modern technology can guarantee a sustainable use of this valuable resource, as some examples from Latin America demonstrate.

Since the 2008 food price crisis, foreign investors have been acquiring more and more land in poor countries for producing foodstuffs and biofuels for their own use. Such investments have the potential to promote rural development and food security worldwide. By the same token, however, there is the danger of countless small farmers losing their land, of food insecurity increasing in many places, and of social and ecological systems collapsing through pure "land grabbing".

Land is an asset of enormous importance for billions of rural dwellers in the developing world. Recent trends are prompting a massive increase in global commercial interest in land and natural resources, and this is creating unprecedented pressures on land resources, especially in developing countries.

Lessons learnt from India prove that people empowerment through self-help groups and target group orientation still matters for sustainable rural development. However, this is only true if economic, socio-cultural, political and environmental empowerment interlock. This article makes an argument for a grassroot-level and participative approach of people empowerment in regional rural development.

Since 1996, the Centres for Agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics of the Universities of Hohenheim and Göttingen and of Berlin's Humboldt University have organised a conference, the ''Tropentag'', once a year to present and discuss recent findings in research on agriculture and rural development. Other universities, like Kassel-Witzenhausen, have joined in, and the number of participants, papers and posters presented has more than doubled.

Poverty in rural households have deepened in the past two years through world events: unprecedented rises in food and fuel prices were followed by global economic meltdown, all amidst growing climate uncertainty. Balancing water availability within and across growing seasons, water harvesting helps to buffer households against drought. Research on water harvesting in South Africa has focused on rural household livelihoods. Innovative results on appropriate water harvesting technologies and food security facilitation techniques are now being implemented in villages across South Africa.

More than 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas.The World Bank's approach to rural development is holistic and multisectoral, focused on improving the wellbeing of rural people by building their productive, social, and environmental assets. The author of this article explores what this means in the longer term horizon of beyond 2015.

Water is scarce in India's semiarid zones of Rajasthan. Climate change is putting additional pressure on the rare resources. Irregular or no rainfall forces many small farmers to abandon their fields, at least temporarily, and seek work in the towns. Participative water management projects as practiced in Bhipur village, growing crops with low water requirements and more sustainable farming practices are adaptation strategies that allow farmers to continue their activities despite climate risks.