The Asia, Pacific and Oceania (APO) region is the centre of diversity of many important species of crops, animals and livestock. Most of its resource-poor farmers depend on this agrobiodiversity for food security and livelihood. Agrobiodiversity in APO has served as the source of genetic materials that propelled the Green Revolution in the region. It has enabled continuous growth in productivity, allowing agriculture to cope with declining yield, emergence of pests and diseases and occurrence of abiotic stresses like drought and floods.

Large-scale agricultural land investments in Africa are often considered solely from the land perspective. Yet land, water and other natural resources are closely interlinked in agricultural production and in sustaining rural livelihoods. Such investments involving irrigation will potentially have implications for water availability and utilization by other users, making it imperative to regard water as an economic rather than a free good.

We acknowledge financial support to this research by ACIAR, DFID, ESPA, ESRC,NERC and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

The way we produce food must adapt to a variable and changing climate. And key to achieving this is to improve the link between climate information and agricultural practices, especially those of smallholder farmers in developing countries. ‘Agro-climate tools’ do just that and some are introduced here.

This paper synthesizes knowledge within CGIAR and its partners on agricultural practices and technologies to enhance food security, resilience and productivity in a sustainable manner. A number of agricultural practices and technologies which contribute to these objectives were identified and assessed to generate four key lessons.

G-Range is a global model that simulates generalized changes in rangelands through time,

created with support from the International Livestock Research Institute. Spatial data and a set

of parameters that control plant growth and other ecological attributes in landscape units

combine with computer code to represent ecological process such as soil nutrient and water

dynamics, vegetation growth, fire, and wild and domestic animal offtake. The model is spatial,

with areas of the world divided into square cells.

Agroforestry and other tree-based systems (wood lots, afforestation) can contribute to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in two ways: 1) as part of REDD+ under certain forest definitions; and / or 2) as part of a strategy for achieving REDD+ in landscapes. In the context of REDD+, agroforestry has the potential for reducing degradation by supplying timber and fuelwood that would otherwise be sourced from adjacent or distant forests.

Do improvements in agricultural technology protect or endanger tropical forests? This book examines this controversial issue. It includes both theoretical frameworks for analysing the issue as well as case studies covering a wide range of geographical regions, technologies, market conditions and types of agricultural procedures. The authors identify technologies, contexts and policies that are likely to be beneficial to both farmers and forests.

Climate change is a major development challenge to Ethiopia. Climate change is expected to

adversely affect all economic sectors, eco-regions, and social groups. Agriculture is one of the

most vulnerable sectors as it is highly dependent on rainfall. This report synthesises four case

studies focusing on the impacts, vulnerabilities and local adaptation practices in Ethiopia‘s

agricultural sector, including policy and institutional responses. The case studies were carried

This chapter summarises the key insights from the case studies included in the book. First, it discusses the technology-deforestation link in six different types of cases: developed countries, commodity booms, shifting cultivation, permanent upland (rainfed) agriculture, irrigated (lowland) agriculture, and cattle production. Next, it returns to the hypotheses presented in the book, and discusses the key conditioning factors in the technology-deforestation link. A number of factors determine the outcome.