The project takes place in the community of Pintadas, in the Bahia state of Brazil, which is suffering increasingly severe drought impacts linked to climate change. There is a high demand for legumes from local and national markets, and a potential to cultivate a greater area of land for this purpose, but opportunities to expand local agricultural practices in this direction are restricted by the absence of an efficient, cost-effective irrigation system. Further, the high insulation rate of the area makes it extremely suitable for effective solar energy systems.

This, the summary report of a Royal Society discussion meeting on food crops in a changing climate, outlines new research that demonstrates that the impact of climate change on crop yields and quality will be more severe than previously thought. It highlights the need for research to improve the resolution and complexity of climate models and the consequent requirement for enhanced computer power.

This report sets out to assess the scientific validity of what it calls the WWF's 'doomsday prophecy', as outlined in the NGO's Living Planet Report 2002. The Danish authors argue that WWF has produced one in a long line of articles, stretching back to Malthus' essay on the principle of population, that predict disaster as a result of human demand on natural resources outstripping supply.The paper outlines the concept of the ecological footprint, one which has developed out of the commonly used carrying capacity measure of sustainable use of natural resources.

This policy brief explains the challenges of meeting both agricultural and nutritional needs in the face of climate change. It identifies specific opportunities for policy change that can simultaneously enhance food and nutrition security.

With a growing global population, much of the current discourse on food security is focussed on increasing agricultural production. However, studies suggest that food insecurity is not caused by lack of food production, but by inadequate distribution, a lack of purchasing power and other non-productive causes. This paper argues that forests and tree-based agricultural systems contribute directly and indirectly to the livelihoods of an estimated one billion people globally.

There are several complex and interrelated challenges and barriers to achieving global food and nutrition security in an increasingly variable 
climate. Without urgent action for mitigation and adaptation, the world faces more loss and damage and this will further threaten the productive capacity and long-term viability of smallholder farmers.

Water, food and energy are fundamental to African development. However, several crucial issues need to be addressed. Are African resources used to meet African needs or are they being exploited to satisfy the needs of other actors facing food and energy insecurity?

A workshop held in Midrand, South Africa, in May 2011 brought together policy and decision-makers, researchers and practitioners to discuss water security issues in eastern and southern Africa. This proceedings document summarises the workshop's outcomes with the aim of:

improving the understanding of water security
identifying opportunities to better address challenges faced by individual countries and sectors
highlighting areas for further research
identifying immediate opportunities for development projects.

A more holistic and flexible development approach is required to support the agency of people adapting to climate change. Since climate change adds another layer of complexity to development challenges, interventions must, at all stages, consider the ways in which people might engage with them in a range of possible future climate scenarios. The study described in this paper, conducted by the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA), analyses the adaptive capacity impacts of various interventions in Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique.