Our occasional contributor Andy Jarvis unleashes the changing geography of agricultural suitability on an unsuspecting world in Copenhagen.
Climate vulnerability in SE Asia mapped
The International Development Research Centre’s Economy and Environment Program for South-East Asia (EEPSEA) has just published a study on the effects of climate change on SE Asia. The authors first mapped climate hazard, including all kinds of different things, from drought to cyclones to sea level rise. They then compared that with maps of population density and adaptive capacity. That allowed them to identify a number of vulnerability hotspots. And here they are, the most vulnerable areas in each country:
All good places in which to start looking for agrobiodiversity to collect for ex situ conservation before it disappears, and in which to test agrobiodiversity for its possible contribution to adaptation.
Nibbles: Aquaculture, Philippines organic, Risk mapping, Jatropha, Plum
- FAO’s Regional Aquaculture Information System (RAIS) website launched. Covers the Gulf states.
- Pinoy farmers urged to go organic.
- Climate change risk mapped in SE Asia. Cambodia surrenders.
- Local weed makes good in Mexico.
- The Prunus mume collection at the Beijing Botanic Garden.
Manga rice
The joy of rice marketing in Japan. I wonder if a similar approach might work for quinoa in Bolivia, say.
Fighting and using insects in agriculture
Most of the continent’s food is lost to insects, either on farm, or in storage post-harvest. By saving just a fraction of this produce, millions of people in Africa would be saved from hunger.
That’s from Prof Christian Borgemeister, DG of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) in Nairobi. But there’s a useful side to insects too, of course. Read the full interview in Business Daily Africa.