Tag: Climate and Agriculture17
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Operational Coconut Yield Predictions
The Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka (CRI) has sustained an improved prediction scheme for national coconut production for the last four years. Coconuts are an important source of food and raw materials and also provide income to millions in the tropics. Coconuts are the most important food crop after rice in Sri Lanka and …
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A Q+A on climate risk management in practice
I had the pleasure of interviewing Graeme Hammer from the Univ. of Queensland a while back about his experiences incorporating climate information into the decision-making process of farmers in Australia. Something he emphasized a number of times during our conversation: simply giving out additional information such as seasonal forecasts isn’t likely to solve any problems…
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Low-cost water management in Ethiopia
Water capture and storage for irrigation has been an ongoing theme of research in Columbia’s earth and environmental engineering department, but Professor Upmanu Lall has recently taken things a step further. With funding from the Pulitzer family, Lall challenged a group of students in his senior engineering course to design a low-cost system of water…
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Using Insurance in Adaptation Efforts
If the recent Conference of the Parties in Poznan, Poland was any indication, next year’s buzzword in the climate-change community will be climate risk insurance. “Dealing with insurance is of fundamental importance in order to meet adaptation objectives,” said UNFCCC Secretary General Yvo de Boer. “If you can’t get insurance because climate change makes you…
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Biofuels, food security, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity
Biofuel use is one of the strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that has already been incorporated into policy and regulatory frameworks. However, it has become increasingly evident that biofuel production has unintended consequences that extend beyond national boundaries and beyond the energy sector. Chief among these are concerns for food security. The food…
