Two new IFPRI briefs on ag and climate change

Via Blog World Hunger, IFPRI has just released two new policy papers on adapting to climate change in Africa. Here are the headline conclusions:

"Economywide Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa":

The paper uses two scenarios: the first doubles the irrigated area in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 but keeps total crop area constant; and the second scenario increases both rainfed and irrigated crop yields by 25 percent for all Sub-Saharan African countries. Due to the limited initial irrigated area in the region, an increase in agricultural productivity achieves better outcomes than an expansion of irrigated area. Both scenarios help lower world food prices, stimulating national and international food markets.

"Soil and Water Conservation Technologies: A Buffer against Production Risk in the Face of Climate Change?":

Results show that soil and water conservation technologies have significant impacts on reducing production risk in Ethiopia and could be part of the country’s climate-proofing strategy. However, results also show that one-size-fits-all recommendations are not appropriate given the differences in agro-ecology and other confounding factors.

IFPRI does great work, and these sound like solid contributions; nevertheless, adaptation to climate change (particularly in Africa and South Asia) has a looooong road ahead.