You hear a lot about “two degrees” nowadays. Conventional wisdom has it that if the international community can contain global temperature rises to within two degrees Celsius by 2050, it can prevent “runaway” global warming that can never be reined back in.
But agricuture is highly vulnerable to even small changes in temperature, which can drastically affect crop suitability and food production. For this reason, two degrees of global warming should not be considered “safe”.
As the Two Degrees Up case studies illustrate, two degrees is too much.
Introduction Narrated by CIAT’s Andy Jarvis, the video outlines the Two Degrees Up concept, and gives an overview of three case studies that look at the impact of climate change on smallholder farmers in Colombia, Ghana and Kenya.
Two Degrees Up: COLOMBIA, Small coffee producers in Colombia are already feeling the effects of climate change on this vital, high-value cash crop.
Two Degrees Up: GHANA, Farmers in the Upper West Region of Ghana are finding that rising temperatures and increasingly unpredictable rains are compounding the long-running problems of population pressure and declining soil fertility.
Two Degrees Up: KENYA, A look at farming systems in the country's Mount Kenya region, and innovative ways for small farmers to adapt to the problem of water stress, compounded by rising temperatures and unpredictable rain.
The Two Degrees Up photofilms mark the recent launch of the CGIAR’s research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), led by CIAT, which is working to find scientific solutions to the issues of climate change adaptation and mitigation for small farmers around the world. The films are produced by Neil Palmer and Andy Jarvis, CIAT.