This chapter introduces the book 'Climate Change Impact and Adaptation in Agricultural Systems', which is comprised of fifteen chapters. The book provides insights into sensitivities and possible adaptive measures to climate change across a number of different production systems, ranging from...

This chapter focuses on increasing the adaptive capacity of agricultural systems in tropical and subtropical regions through agroforestry. Agroforestry as a concept resists and tries to counteract the way agriculture has been segregated from forests and forestry. The chapter reviews the hypothesis...

This chapter provides the background for the subsequent chapters in this book, and discusses climate projections for the next few decades. While the focus is on the period until 2050, it should be noted that climate change will very likely continue well beyond the middle of the 21st century....

This chapter discusses the mechanisms by which climate change will influence broad-acre rainfed farming systems (cropping and grazing) in Australia and critically evaluates possible on-farm adaptation options. These results will be aggregated to national scales to examine the benefits derived from...

This chapter reviews the impact of climate change on, and the adaptation potential of, ecologically intensive systems such as those known in different parts of the world as organic farming, or agroecology. To fit into the rationale of this book, this chapter focuses on Latin America, and on the...

This chapter contributes to understanding the context of risk management by bringing together a diversity of literatures pertinent to the use of seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs). In particular, it examines the role of such forecasts in assisting agricultural producers to adapt to climate...

This chapter focuses on knowledge needs for farm-level agricultural adaptation. Although there is a large literature exploring the many dimensions of, and barriers to, climate change adaptation, there has been little analysis of knowledge requirements for agricultural adaptation. This chapter...

This chapter argues that it is the differences in households' socioeconomic and environmental characteristics that affect the choice of coping strategies rather than the type of extreme event. In other words, a household employs what is at its disposal to cope with an extreme climate event, whether ...