Climate@Sussex

Food

Critical issue: Food

The impacts of climate variability on food production and malnutrition, pathways to sustainable livelihoods for poor farmers in uncertain climates, biotechnology and the politics food security and production are among subjects covered by the world-class research on food and agriculture at Sussex.

The STEPS Centre’s work on food, agriculture and climate change explores the many competing narratives about agricultural innovation and uncovers potential alternatives to a more sustainable and productive food future. One project examined various options for maize farmers in the drought-prone Kenya – from choosing alternative crops, to using new techniques or technology. It looked at how farmers and others see and make these choices in the context of climate change, uncertain markets and changes in land use. It also looked at the assumptions and framings behind various interventions and proposals by governments, researchers, aid donors and private companies and found that the growing concern with climate change could be an opportunity to challenge conventional practices. 

Meanwhile over a decade of research from Sussex on the politics and governance of agricultural biotechnology around the world can be found in the STEPS Centre’s biotechnology archive, including Peter Newell’s critical look at the design of biosafety and biotechnology regulation and its ability to protect the poorest farmers, and work on the role of science in agri-biotech governance by Andy Stirling, Erik Millstone and Adrian Ely. 

Elsewhere, in a project funded by the World Bank, we examined the relationship between seasonal climate (means and variability) and crop yields in Tanzania, focusing on maize, sorghum and rice. The research demonstrates scenarios of future climate where the largest increases in intra-seasonal climate variability are projected to render Tanzanians increasingly vulnerable to poverty, through impacts on staple grains production in agriculture. The work highlights that, in addition to shifts in growing season means, changes in intra-seasonal variability of weather may be important for future yields.

Experts

 

Resources

Seeds and Sustainability: Maize pathways in Kenya, a STEPS
Centre short film

Biotechnology Research Archive

Eldis Collection on Food Security

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