Climate change will result in additional food insecurities, particularly for the resource poor in developing countries who cannot meet their food requirements through market access.

This Synthesis Paper is based on an Expert Meeting held in Rome 26

There is increasing international recognition that while growth in bioenergy offers new opportunities for sustainable agricultural development, it also carries significant risks. With use of current technologies and set policies, the growth in liquid biofuels is contributing to the rise of commodity prices and may have negative impacts on food security and the environment.

Climate change will have a disproportionate impact on poor developing countries - compared to the expected net effects in developed regions - due to a combination of more severe climatic impacts in areas that are already vulnerable today, coupled with inadequate resources, technology and organizational capacity to adapt to them.

All agricultural commodities covered in this report are of critical importance to global food and feed markets. They constitute much of the world's food consumption, generate income to farmers and represent the largest portion of food import expenditures across the world. The analysis in the report puts in perspective market developments in recent months with a view to providing some insights into how the outlook might unfold for the commodities covered during the coming months.

The anticipated impacts of climate change on grassland systems and appropriate management responses have been reviewed extensively, though the emphasis has been on European temperate and North American rangeland systems.

International cereal prices (in US dollar terms) have been increasing since 2003, but it is domestic prices that affect food consumption and production. This report analyzes, for seven large Asian countries, the extent to which domestic prices have increased since 2003 and presents several conclusions.

Poverty is deepest among scheduled castes and tribes in the country

The recent rapid increases in the international prices of many basic food commodities have raised many questions from policy-makers, the media, the public, and the farmers who have the opportunity to benefit from the situation.

This report addresses challenges that face water resources for agriculture in Africa in the context of climate change, uncertainty that is adding other burdens to other existing challenges. These include population pressure; land use, such as erosion/siltation; and its impacts on the hydrological cycle.