Agric Investments Can Help Mitigate Climate Change, Decrease Rural Poverty

Investing in agricultural development can help mitigate climate change while decreasing rural poverty and vulnerability in Africa, wrote Chris Funk and colleagues in their paper published by the Proc. National Academy of Sciences (USA). The group composed of researchers from the University of Massachusetts, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and US Geological Survey analyzed the effects of increasing water temperatures in the Indian Ocean to African agriculture. They reported that results from their study indicate that the increases in ocean temperature translated to about 15% decline in continental rainfall.

This decline affects most eastern and southern Africa regions specially those areas dependent on rain-fed agriculture. The researchers contend that the trend might create drought and social disruption in the region, considered to have some of the world's most fragile food economies. Funk and colleagues reported that their results support those of previous studies indicating that semi-arid Africa may experience large-scale water stress and yield reductions and may result to 50% increase in undernourished people in less than 30 years time. They reviewed that only 4% of African public spending goes to agriculture.

The research paper is freely available at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/05/0708196105.full.pdf+html