About this Research Topic

Background

Climate change poses significant long-term risks to food and nutritional security. Extreme temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, and drought caused by climate change can reduce agricultural productivity by decreasing crop water and nutrient use efficiency. Warmer air temperatures, which lengthen the growing season, can influence the spread of insects, invasive weeds, and diseases, thus potentially affecting crop yields. Climate change has increased the incidence of extreme weather events such as wildfires, flooding, hailstorms, and tornadoes. These threats limit food production by affecting crop yields, seed reserves, livestock, and fisheries, causing economic losses and disrupting the internal balance of vulnerable countries.

Climate change is expected to cause more frequent and intense extreme temperatures, storms, floods, and droughts each year, adding uncertainty to food production. Climate change has an impact on agricultural production; however, agricultural production also contributes to climate change by emitting greenhouse gases. Maintaining agricultural productivity will require adaptation strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure food security, considering the impact of climate change and extreme weather events. Additional research is required to incorporate multiple systems and interests in adaptation and to formulate a response to the imminent threat to food security. The different adaptation measures can be upscaling modern technologies such as conservation and climate-smart agriculture, using water and nutrients for agriculture efficiently through micro-irrigation and water-saving technologies, diversifying crops, utilizing stress-tolerant crop cultivars, and restoring degraded soils, promoting carbon sequestration through alternate production technologies and land use, and conserving ecosystems. Adaptation to climate change seeks to reduce negative factors and modify environmental and human contexts that contribute to climate-related risk, thus supporting and promoting sustainability in social and economic development.

In this research topic, we want to collect research articles that focus on climate change impact on agriculture and vice versa. Also, adaptation strategies that use sustainable methods to mitigate climate change and improve crop productivity and nutrition. We want to invite authors worldwide who can help vulnerable countries develop climate change adaptation strategies and improve their food and nutrition security.

Keywords: Agriculture, food security, extreme temperatures, growing season, crop yields, food production, conservation, climate-smart agriculture, micro-irrigation, water-saving technologies, diversifying crops

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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