Introduction

Abstract

More than any other human activity, agriculture is fundamental to the survival and well-being of the human population. In 2016, a total of 2.73 Gt of food grains were produced worldwide. This fundamental food source is alone enough to supply sufficient nutritional kilocalories for the entire global population. And nutrition is supplemented by the many other crops and livestock that are part of the overall food system (FAO 2016). Yet, in the same year, it is estimated that around 815 million people, some 11% of the world’s population were chronically hungry. Moreover, the number was higher (by 38 million) than in the previous year and this rise can largely be attributed to conflict combined with climate effects such as more frequent droughts or floods (FAO 2017). These two issues are also connected. Exacerbated by climate-related shocks, the number of conflicts is on the rise augmenting the challenges of maintaining food security. Indeed, existing household level poverty and, at the macro level, the slowing down of national/regional economies has drained foreign exchange and fiscal revenues, eventually affecting both food availability through reduced import capacity and food access through reduced fiscal space to protect poor households against rising domestic food prices have worsened food security. The global population is expected to increase from 7.6 billion in 2017 to 8.5 billion by 2030, and, perhaps, over 9.5 billion by 2050 (UN). In some regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the population is likely to double by 2050 (PRB 2013). Whilst uncontrolled population growth is posing a major challenge to continuing effort in improving global food security; climate change has begun to pose a formidable threat to our surrounding agro-ecosystem. Based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2014 report, the following schematic diagram shows the cascading effects of climate change on food insecurity (IPCC 2014) (see Fig. 1.1, page 17).