Food production must adapt in the face of climate change. In Europe, projected vulnerability of food production to climate change is particularly high in Mediterranean regions. Increasing agricultural diversity has been suggested as an adaptation strategy, but empirical evidence is lacking. The authors analyzed the relationship between regional farm diversity and the effects of climate variability on regional wheat productivity. An extensive data set with information from more than 50 000 farms from 1990 to 2003 was analyzed, along with observed weather data. The results suggest that the diversity in farm size and intensity, particularly high in Mediterranean regions, reduces vulnerability of regional wheat yields to climate variability. Accordingly, increasing regional farm diversity can be a strategy through which regions in Europe can adapt to unfavorable conditions, such as higher temperatures and associated droughts. (complete article can be found at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss1/ art38/)

This report summarizes the presentations, discussions and recommendations of a workshop, co-hosted by the Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development, Ministry of Agriculture and the Norwegian Ministry for Agriculture and Food, that was held in Bogor, Indonesia, from 9-11 March 2010. The workshop was organized in order to provide an arena for informal discussions on the implementation of Non-Monetary Benefit Sharing in relation to the Treaty, as implementation and follow up have been somewhat lacking in this respect until now. Non-monetary benefit Sharing as it is dealt with under article 13 of the Treaty is related to the realization of Farmers' Rights since benefit sharing is also central to article 9 on Farmers' Rights.

In September 2007, a group of experts from the genetic conservation, climate science, agricultural development, and plant genetics and breeding communities met at the Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, to initiate a discussion about the management of global crop genetic resources in the face of climate change. This document provides an overview on the major topics under discussion. The focus was on global food security, and much of the discussion therefore centered on malnourished populations, the majority of whom depend to some extent on agriculture for their livelihoods. In particular, attention was directed toward two key regions of food insecurity: South Asia and African continent.

This paper is organized in five sections: (a) section one reviews the latest findings on impacts of key climate change variables on plant function and farm-level production systems, including changes in elevated carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature, and precipitation patterns; (b) section two presents an analysis of the repercussions of these local impacts on regional and global food productions; (c) section three presents a discussion of the adaptation strategies that are necessary to minimize the expected negative impacts on agro-ecosystems, as well as capitalize on potential new opportunities for promoting greater resilience and sustainable production; (d) section four identifies the important synergies that exist between adaptation strategies and mitigation options, such as those leading to carbon sequestration; (e) section five presents recommendations on some practical and operational steps needing to be implemented now, from the perspective of short- and long-term sustainable rural development and agricultural planning.