Extreme Weather Events: Implications for Food Security and Natural Capital

Dear Colleagues,

Frequent extreme weather events are the most visible consequences of climate change and need more attention as agriculture, i.e., food production and the environment, are among the most vulnerable sectors.

The intensification of climate change driven by global warming is threatening the sustainability, food security, and prosperity of many agricultural communities across the world. The higher frequency and intensity of climate variability and extreme climatic events have significantly affected agricultural productivity growth in the last 60 years. Coupled with increasing global population growth and demand for food, increasingly frequent extreme climatic events elicit an urgent and compelling need for the development of new knowledge, technologies and practices enabling scalable, sustainable intensification. Complementarities between adaptation and mitigation options should be considered based on their socio-economic and environmental impacts and their contribution to sustainable development.

The increased variability of driving climatic variables (rainfall, temperature, and atmospheric CO₂ concentration) may amplify the effects of climate change influencing crop and livestock production, particularly as extreme events intensify. More frequent droughts, heat waves, and lower soil water availability can markedly reduce farm income while also causing significant natural, human, and social costs through animal mortality, crop failures, loss of vegetation, biodiversity, and soil health with deleterious effects on multiple ecosystem services, staff departures, and labor shortages, and destruction of farm infrastructure. The global scientific community must urgently prioritize new research on systemic adaptation to extreme weather events, understanding the potential in land use and sustainability across space and over time for guiding strategic decisions that can help farming systems adapt to the current climate emergency, anticipate opportunities, avoid disasters, and cope with surprises. Transformational change is ever called for but hitherto somewhat elusive. Transformative change may be realised through bundled operational innovation networks (physical infrastructure, research platforms, economic diversification, socio-cultural and institutional change) that can be together utilised for knowledge exchange and co-creation.

A better understanding of the direct and indirect impact of extreme weather events on food security and on natural, social and economic capital could provide knowledge on how to adapt agri-food systems to such events.

The participatory, collaborative, and interdisciplinary approach considered in this Special Issue encourages the analysis of the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events over multiple land-use options and land-use transitions, generating relevant information to support the debate between stakeholders (researchers, farmers, extension services, funding members, industry, government, and consumers), designing more profitable, resilient, and sustainable farm systems. Regionally relevant works are welcome, as are holistic systems-based adaptation and mitigation assessments, as well as developing alternative regional land-use plans.

Dr. Matthew Harrison
Dr. Franco Bilotto
Dr. Ke Liu
Dr. Marcellus Caldas
Dr. Ritvik Sahajpal
Dr. Monika Marković
Guest Editors

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• climate crisis
• cropping systems
• greenhouse gas emissions
• land use intensification
• extreme weather events
• land adaptation and mitigation
• climate change
• crop yield and quality
• livestock production
• GHG emissions
• land use change
• adaptations