Abstract

Agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change will put millions of people in developing countries at greater risk of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. A new report from the International Food Policy Research Institute, Climate change: Impact on agriculture and costs of adaptation, provides projections for decreased crop yields, higher food prices, and increased child malnutrition by 2050, as compared to a scenario without climate change. It estimates that an additional US $7-8 billion per year must be invested to increase agricultural productivity to prevent these adverse effects and lays out a series of policy and program recommendations that will enable poor farmers to adapt to climate change. This seminar will present the results of the report, with commentators assessing its conclusions and the necessary steps to implement them.