Browsing by Author "Cooper, P.J.M."

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    Adding value to field-based agronomic research through climate risk assessment : a case study of maize production in Kitale, Kenya
    (Cambridge University Press, 2011) Dixit, P.N.; Cooper, P.J.M.; Dimes, J.; Rao, K.P.
    Given the need for information on climate-induced risk and the availability of well-tested crop growth simulation models and spatial weather generators, the objectives of this study are to demonstrate the value of such tools as APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) and MarkSim (software that generates daily weather data). These simulators can complement field-based research, and in this study, help to assess the value of outputs in the context of a high potential maize production area (Kitale, Kenya) where climate-induced risk might be assumed to be unimportant.
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    Coping better with current climatic variability in the rain-fed farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa : a dress rehearsal for adapting to future climate change?
    (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), 2006) Cooper, P.J.M.; Dimes, J.; Rao, K.P.C.; Shapiro, B.; Shiferaw, B.; Twomlow, S.
    Far greater investment in the rain-fed farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is essential if chronic food shortages and poverty are to be reduced and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is to be achieved. However, in such systems, rainfall variability is the fundamental factor that defines production uncertainty, and whilst farmers have learned to cope with current climatic variability, they and many associated potential investors are ‘risk averse’ and over-estimate the impact of rainfall variability on crop and livestock production. As a result they are reluctant to make such investments when the outcomes seem so uncertain from year to year. Climate change will result in even greater rainfall variability in many parts of SSA and can only exacerbate this situation. However, unless the livelihoods of resource poor farmers and the natural resource base upon which they depend are made more resilient though coping better with current climate variability, the challenge of adapting to future climate change will be daunting for most and perhaps impossible for many. ICRISAT is helping to bring together a consortium of national, regional and international partners that will bring new and proven climate risk management tools to address the concerns of farmers and stakeholder investors and will help them build strategic and tactical climate risk management approaches into their planning and activities. Indeed, if a better understanding of the constraints and opportunities of climatically induced risk is not provided to key stakeholders and farmers alike, investment in the rain-fed agricultural sector in SSA is likely to remain at its current low and inadequate level resulting in persistent poverty and vulnerability of rural populations. The Consortium experts are convinced that the successful application of these approaches will, by 2015, have facilitated and guided agricultural investments that will play a major role in moving towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and in answering Secretary Kofi Annan’s call for a truly African Green Revolution.