Climate Change and Food Security ─ Africa and the Caribbean

The present changing global climatic regimes of precipitation and temperature have resulted in the increased frequency of extreme weather events, together with rising sea levels. These impact all four aspects of food security – food availability, accessibility, stability of supply and appropriate nourishment - either directly or indirectly, as they affect the entire food system - food production, marketing, processing, distribution, and prices.

This edited volume focuses on the challenge to food security posed by a changing climate, with chapters exemplifying many of the critical issues through empirical studies undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Focussing on risk reduction and management, the book includes chapters on the responsiveness of farmers based on traditional knowledge; the monitoring of national food prices by governments; the use of satellite imaging to provide landscape information; and the development of innovative schemes for insuring against risk of hazards associated with climate change. It also examines a number of cross-cutting themes that underlie the strategies employed to achieve food security including equity, gender, livelihoods and governance.

Bringing together many of the critical global concerns of climate change and food security through local cases based on empirical studies, this volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, food security, environmental management and sustainable development.

Elizabeth Thomas-Hope is The James Seivright Moss-Solomon Professor of Environmental Management and Head of the Department of Geography and Geology at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.