The IWMI World Water and Climate Atlas gives irrigation and agricultural planners rapid access to accurate data on climate and moisture availability for agriculture. The Atlas includes monthly and annual summaries for precipitation, temperature, humidity, hours of sunshine, evaporation estimates, wind speed, total number of days with and without rainfall, days without frost and Penman-Montieth reference evapotranspiration rates.

To assess the adaptive capacities of agro-pastoral communities to climate change, a participatory survey was conducted in the region between February and May 2009. The survey covered in total 175 households, covering 60 households per agro-ecological zone (i.e., the zones Séno and Gourma), with 15 households per village. In the Delta zone, 55 households were available for the interview. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between household coping strategies and selected factors.

The experiences from East and Southern Africa presented in this paper indicate that for smallholder farmers in savannah agro-ecosystems, conservation farming primarily constitutes a water harvesting strategy. It is thus a non-inversion tillage strategy for in situ moisture conservation, rather than one solely aimed at minimum tillage with mulch cover. Challenges for the future adoption of conservation farming in sub-Saharan Africa include how to improve farmer awareness of conservation farming benefits, and how to efficiently incorporate green manure/cover crops and manage weeds.

This discussion paper is based on micro-level analysis of adaptation that focuses on tactical decisions farmers make in response to seasonal variations in climatic, economic, and other factors in Southern Africa.  The document is based on a cross-section database of three countries: South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The data used in this study was collected as part of the Global Environment Facility/World Bank Climate Change and African Agriculture Project.  The key findings from this study include:

The Amazon forest greatly influences the global climate and may be coming under increasing threat due to climate change. This report explores the relationship between the Amazon, climate, and the changes in this relationship that are underway as a result of forest destruction and the release of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The paper seeks to interpret the best information available to determine how close we are to a point of no return for a major forest “dieback” in the Amazon, and to identify some steps that might be taken to counter this process.

Africa is highly vulnerable to the various manifestations of climate change. This paper focuses on a number of variables that will be affected by climate change, including, water resources, food security, ecosystems, natural resources, human health, agriculture and overall vulnerability.

CROPWAT 8.0 for Windows is a computer program for the calculation of crop water requirements and irrigation requirements based on soil, climate and crop data. In addition, the program allows the development of irrigation schedules for different management conditions and the calculation of scheme water supply for varying crop patterns. CROPWAT 8.0 can also be used to evaluate farmers" irrigation practices and to estimate crop performance under both rain fed and irrigated conditions.

The assumption that plants can absorb excessive fossil fuel emissions containing carbon dioxide because they need the gas in order to grow is challenged in this paper.These researchers report that increased levels of carbon dioxide (when combined with the other effects of climate change) actually suppress growth rather than helping plants to flourish. The three-year field experiment was unusual in looking at the effects of temperature, rainfall and nitrogen deposits, as well as carbon dioxide, in an attempt to mimic future climate conditions as accurately as possible.

Micro-basins are slope management structures built of earth and stones on hillslopes around cultivated trees (e.g., olive trees) for the harvesting of rainfall and runoff water, and for the rehabilitation of land degraded by water erosion. In this study, the results of an experimental survey for the comparison of soil water content for both inside and outside the micro-basins are analysed. Measurements are taken after some rainfall events from January to December 2003 in a hilly region of Central Tunisia.