As the global population grows and incomes in poor countries rise, so too, will the demand for food, placing additional pressure on sustainable food production. Climate change adds a further challenge, as changes in temperature and precipitation threaten agricultural productivity and the...

Agricultural water productivity (WP) has been recognized as an important indicator of agricultural water management. This study assesses the WP for irrigated (WPI) and rainfed (WPR) crops in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) in China. WPI and WPR are calculated for major crops (corn, wheat, rice, and...

Provincial panel data from the agricultural sector and stochastic frontier production function model were employed to study the total factor productivity (TFP) growth since the 1980s in China. We decomposed the TFP growth into technological progress and technical efficiency changes (efficiency...

Weather shocks and natural disasters, it has been argued, represent a major threat to national and international security. Our paper contributes to the emerging micro-level strand of the literature on the link between local variations in weather shocks and conflict by focusing on a pixel-level...

This paper presents an approach of combining biophysical, social, and economic factors for spatially explicit assessment of potential future risks of food insecurity at a global scale over the period of 2000--2020 under a certain scenario. In doing that, two indicators, namely per capita food...

Recent droughts in the Horn of Africa have again raised concerns over the viability of pastoralism. Vulnerability to drought, arguably increasing on the back of climate change and population pressures, provides a compelling justification for encouraging economic diversification. It is less...

Smallholder irrigation may considerably contribute to agricultural productivity growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the full potential of expanding smallholder irrigation under alternative irrigation technologies is not known. This paper presents a study to assess the irrigation expansion...

Grain self-sufficiency is one of the most important agricultural policy goals in China. With only modest imports, China has succeeded in feeding 22% of the world's population on only 7% of its land. However, a high price has been paid for this enormous achievement. Increase in grain yields, in...