Academic/research institution

The Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) is a private, non-profit research organization focusing on environmental sciences. Our scientists combine analysis of satellite images of the Earth with field studies to measure, model, and map changes in the world’s ecosystems, from the thawing permafrost in the Arctic to the expanding agriculture regions of the tropics.

WHRC works locally and regionally, with in-depth expertise and collaborations in North and South America and Africa; and also work globally, focusing on how humans are changing global cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and water. WHRC merges natural science with economics to discover sustainable paths for human prosperity and stewardship of the Earth’s natural resources.

Mission: To advance scientific discovery and seek science-based solutions for the world’s environmental and economic challenges through research and education on forests, soils, air, and water.

The idea of updating and expanding a national drought atlas was developed from the original Drought Atlas that was done in conjunction with the United States Army Corps of Engineers by Hoskings, Wallis and Guttman in the early 1990s. The original Drought Atlas consisted of those stations in the Historical Climate Network (HCN), numbering approximately 1,000 stations. The period of record at the time was limited, as many stations only had records from the 1940s to present, and these data points were put into their respective climate divisions. A monthly time step was used to calculate the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI).

The new Drought Risk Atlas brings precise climatological data down to spatial scales that would allow decision makers to use this tool to better understand drought in their respective region and to make better decisions. For the new national Drought Risk Atlas, the idea was to expand the data both in the number of stations analyzed and the period of record to include the most complete long-term stations, some of which are not part of the HCN. Using a weekly time-step to calculate multiple drought indices at each station location, not on a climate division scale, allows for a more precise representation of drought histories. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), Deciles, United States Drought Monitor and other climatological data are included in the new Drought Risk Atlas. Along with the climatological data, gridded maps created on a weekly time-step are available for the entire United States.

This work is funded under a grant from the Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP) of the NOAA-Climate Program Office. Additional Funding was provided by the NIDIS Program Office and the USDA-Risk Management Service (RMA).

AGRINATURA is a new alliance formed by 31 European universities and research organisations working in agricultural research, education, training and capacity strengthening for development.  

AGRINATURA members are involved in a broad range of issues related to agricultural research and education for development contributing through their expertise and experience.  

AGRINATURA focuses on initiatives that open up new opportunities for farmers to enhance food security and improve the agro-food sector in general, whilst reducing the negative impact of agricultural activities on the environment.

The goals of AgMIP are to improve substantially the characterization of world food security due to climate change and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. Analyses of the agricultural impacts of climate variability and change require a transdisciplinary effort to consistently link state-of-the-art climate scenarios to crop and economic models. Crop model outputs are aggregated as inputs to regional and global economic models to determine regional vulnerabilities, changes in comparative advantage, price effects, and potential adaptation strategies in the agricultural sector. Climate, crop model, economics, and information technology protocols are presented to guide coordinated AgMIP research activities around the world, along with cross-cutting themes that address aggregation, uncertainty, and the development of Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) to enable testing of climate change adaptations in the context of other global trends. The organization of research activities by geographic region and specific crops is described, along with project milestones.

FARM Assistance is best described as a computerized decision support system. The computer model itself was built on a foundation of 20 plus years of research. Agricultural economists with the Texas A&M University System have developed and perfected methods in risk analysis and in simulating the financial future of an agricultural production firm. Through FARM Assistance, these capabilities have been extended to provide farmers and ranchers in Texas with sound decision-making information.

An outcome of the G8 and G20 discussions on food security and agricultural growth, the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) is a four year multi-donor partnership between the European Commission (EC), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Italian Development Cooperation (DGCS), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Development Bank (BMZ- KfW) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in strategic partnership with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and development partners to make risk management an integral part of policy planning and implementation in the agricultural sector.

The Platform plays the role of facilitator in bundling the know-how of participating donors for the development of methodologies for risk analysis and the adoption of risk management strategies, integrating risk management instruments and approaches in public policies, private sector practices and agricultural investment programmes.

The overall objective of PARM is to contribute to sustainable agricultural growth, reduce food insecurity, and improve livelihoods of rural and poor farming households in developing countries.

PARM Secretariat Contact Information:

[email protected]

@PARMinfo

http://p4arm.org

The ARC is the principal agricultural research institution in South Africa that conducts research, drive research and development, drive technology development and the transfer of information.

The fight against drought receives a high priority in WMO. The Organization involves National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in regional and sub-regional cooperative projects such as the operation of Drought Monitoring Centres in Africa (DMC-Nairobi , DMC-Harare). In particular, WMO promotes research on the interactions between climate, the hydrological regime and drought in the context of climate variability, change and water resources scarcity. With a view to developing appropriate response strategies, WMO's efforts in drought forecasting and mitigation are supplemented by public awareness and education and training activities.

The Drylands Development Centre (DDC) is a thematic centre of UNDP dedicated to fighting poverty and achieving sustainable development in the drier regions of the world. Over 40 percent of the world is drylands, where about 2.3 billon people live in nearly 100 countries. Many people living in drylands depend directly upon a highly variable natural resource base for their livelihoods, and about half of all dryland inhabitants - one billion people - are poor and marginalized. This accounts for close to half of the world's poor.

The UNDP-DDC recognizes that achieving sustainable development in the drylands has significant implications for reducing poverty and hunger worldwide. It will be impossible to meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving world poverty and hunger by 2015 unless life is improved for the people of the drylands. Fortunately, the drylands have the potential to be productive and there is a real opportunity for the people who live there to prosper.

The UNDP-DDC's support is delivered through its framework programme, the Integrated Drylands Development Programme (IDDP). The IDDP is currently operational in 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States. The IDDP combines three approaches to drylands development into one integrated programme:

YPARD, the Young Professional’s Platform for Agricultural Research for Development, has a mission to serve as a global platform through which young professionals (under 40) can express their ideas and realize their full potential towards dynamic agricultural research for development. YPARD is a movement of young professionals. It creates spaces for deliberation and interaction. At the heart of YPARD as a movement are its members, who are encouraged to become active in their area, spread the news about YPARD to other young professionals, encourage a stronger voice of youth in their own organizations and share their views and ideas with other young professionals in the network.