13 May 2011

Call for Papers: Climate Change Adaptation and Agriculture

A special issue of International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology

Climate change will have particular implications for agriculture, which is the most climate-dependent economic activity. Climate change can be expected to have significant impacts upon crop yields through changes in both temperature and moisture availability. The increased variability of rainfall and weather events will necessitate new management techniques. Climate change-induced variations in the distribution of plant diseases and pests may also have adverse effects on agriculture.

For agricultural systems, adaptation to climate change requires initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of the systems to actual or expected climate change effects.

This special issue is devoted to questions such as:
  • In what ways are agricultural systems vulnerable?
  • What are the expected impacts of climate change on agricultural systems?
  • What measures could be used to adapt to the expected climate change effects?
  • What measures could be used to manage the risks of climate change to agricultural production?
Answering this range of questions requires the skills of many disciplines. As such, this issue is open to a large range of disciplines – papers from agronomy, soil science and farm management through to resource/ecological economics, law and policy are welcome. The notion is to present a set of papers that cover the range of issues associated with adaptation of agricultural production to climate change.

Topics include but are not limited to:
  • Estimating the impacts of climate change on agricultural production
  • Altering the timing of planting dates to adapt to changing growing conditions
  • Altering cropping mixes and species that are better suited to changing climatic conditions
  • Breeding new plant species and crops that are more tolerant to changed climate conditions
  • Controlling insect outbreaks and disease outbreaks
  • Strategies for risk management in the face of increased climate variability
  • Farmer education to respond to climate change
Important Date
Deadline for submission: 31 July, 2011

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