Climate Risk Management for Resilient Agricultural Systems

All guest editors acknowledge funding received through the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and the MDC-funded Northern Australian Climate Program.

Dear colleagues,

Climate variability and change pose significant challenges to the resilience of a wide range of social, economic, and ecological systems. Managing associated risks in these systems, while also capitalising on potential benefits, requires adaptive decision-making—including within policy arenas—that is actively informed by scientific knowledge and especially climate sciences. Within agricultural systems, climate information—from observations and monitoring, forecasts on monthly to multi-annual timescales, and multi-decadal projections of climate change—delivered in the form of climate services, can aid preparedness and contribute to positive socio-economic and environmental outcomes. However, the value of climate services based on such information is unlikely to be fully realised unless it is (i) relevant to and actionable by users; and (ii) users also understand when and how to use such information.

This Special Issue (SI) focuses on cross-disciplinary research that applies climate knowledge in order to enhance its value to agricultural climate risk decision-making and support the resilience of agricultural production systems and associated socio-ecological systems (rural landscapes and communities). As such, we invite manuscripts that meet the following criteria:

1. Focus: Integrated climate services (early warning and management of extreme events, including flash droughts; past and future climate on timescales including months, seasons, years and decades; value of climate services; adaptation decision support; climate insurance; policy; extension models; novel approaches to overcoming adoption barriers) for agricultural climate risk decision-making
2. Scope: Land-based agricultural (food and fibre) production systems—global

The SI will provide a collection of state-of-the-art research on the application of climate science for climate risk mitigation in agricultural contexts; and, within the context of climate services and agricultural innovation, provide examples of approaches that integrate climate risk into the analysis of agricultural production systems and an evidence base for integrated and adaptive climate risk management policy and practice.

Dr. Kathryn Reardon-Smith
Prof. Dr. Shahbaz Mushtaq
Prof. Dr. Chris Hewitt
Dr. David Cobon
Guest Editors

References:

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• climate risk management
• climate services
• sustainable food production systems
• rural livelihoods
• climate variability
• climate change
• climate finance
• economic valuation
• climate insurance
• policy
• adaptation
• resilience