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The current debate on climate change, its impacts on socio-ecological systems and the role of agriculture has shifted from an emphasis on how to mitigate the effects of increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to how to prepare and adapt to the expected adverse impacts. This follows the recognition that the climate is already changing as a result of mankind’s activities and there is little that can be done to prevent further increases in atmospheric concentrations of GHG in the short term.
It is clear that strategies for adaptation to climate change will need to embrace different sectors, support development and will be interdependent, requiring collaboration amongst multiple stakeholders, ranging from resource managers to policy makers. There is a need to be more proactive rather than reactive and to focus first on measures that achieve multiple goals, i.e., that address not only the impacts of climate change but also other stresses such as land degradation or desertification. In this brief review we highlight such measures that are being developed by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) for the world’s non-tropical drylands.
Originally Published In: Journal of SAT Agricultural Research (2007)
