Of the five principal global carbon pools, the ocean pool is the largest at 38.4 trillion metric tons (mt) in the surface layer, followed by the fossil fuels (4.13 trillion mt), soils (2.5 trillion mt to a depth of one meter), biotic (620 billion

Many opportunities exist for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through better management of trees and soils.

Risk characterizes life for many of the world’s poorest households. They are more likely to be located in environments where livelihoods are highly susceptible to weather and price variability and where health risks are pervasive.

Climate change will bring with it increased frequency of two types of natural disasters that affect agriculture and rural households: droughts and floods.

Even with abundant evidence of the urgent need for action on climate change mitigation, there are still those who consider mitigation strategies a burden.

Despite their compelling logic, index insurance contracts that transfer risk from smallholder farmers and pastoralists have met with sometimes indifferent demand and low uptake by the intended beneficiaries.

The Mongolian rural economy is based on livestock reared by semi-nomadic herders. Agriculture contributes around 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and herding accounts for more than 80 percent of agriculture.

Helping households manage the risks they face is important in reducing poverty in developing countries. All households face health risks, and when health shocks occur, they have a severe impact on people’s livelihoods.

Risk is pervasive in developing countries. The standard household risks of sickness, mortality, fire, theft, and unemployment are especially severe for poor families in developing countries.

Agriculture in Ethiopia is almost entirely rainfed and highly prone to droughts and floods. Given that 85 percent of the population depends on smallholder agriculture, these weather shocks severely affect many Ethiopians.

Farmers face a variety of market and production risks that make their incomes volatile from year to year.

Elements of social protection date back several millennia. Free food distribution was a feature of Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs and of Rome during its Imperial age.

In 2002 a group of insurance and reinsurance professionals set out to demonstrate that the low-income market was a viable insurance market.

Questions in development economics often focus on the poor’s limited access to capital and, in particular, on their high interest rate for borrowing.

A serious injury or illness usually increases medical expenses and often reduces income.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soils are responsible for about 3 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which cause climate change, and contribute approximately one-third of non-CO2 agricultural GHG emissions.

Rice is grown on more than 140 million hectares worldwide and is the most heavily consumed staple food on earth. Ninety percent of the world’s rice is produced and consumed in Asia, and 90 percent of rice land is—at least temporarily—flooded.

If fundamental climate change mitigation and adaptation goals are to be met, international climate negotiations must include agriculture.