Climate change and the adaptability of agriculture: A review

The assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture has emerged as a re cognizable field of research over the past 15 years or so. In a relatively short period, this area of work has undergone a number of important concept ual and methodological developments. Among many questions that have been de bated are the adaptability of agriculture to climate change and the importa nce of land management adjustments in reducing the adverse effects of clima te change. In turn, this latter focus has spawned a discussion regarding th e nature of adaptation and the ability of agriculture to respond to sudden and rapid climatic changes. In this paper we present an overview of this de bate. It is argued that the first generation of climate change impact studies gen erally ignored the possibility that agriculturalists may adjust their farmi ng practices in order to cope with climate change or to take advantage of n ew production opportunities. This conceptual oversight has been largely eli minated over the past five years or so. However, questions remain surroundi ng the likelihood that various adaptive strategies will actually be deploye d in particular places. In this paper, we stress the importance of studying adaptation in the context of decision-making at the individual farm level and beyond.