ctives of the study are: (i) to review current knowledge on vulnerability, past trends in climate, and impacts of climate variability and change on agriculture sector, and (ii) to explore technical and policy alternatives in order to cope with and adapt to impacts of climate variability and change more effectively. The study identified what the potential impacts are, considered what interventions are appropriate, and if and where they should occur. The scope of the study focused on broader policy directions and investment priorities in relation to climate change adaptation. The first two chapters of this book present overall background on the agriculture sector and vulnerability context. Chapter 2 specifically presents vulnerability of agro-ecosystems and food production systems in both temporal and special dimensions. Chapter 3 elaborates on the nature of climate variability and expected future changes in climate. The past trends in climate were described based on observation, analysi

Some general charscteristics of farming in a tropical environment; Shifting cultivation systems; Fallow systems; Ley systems; Systems with permanent upland cultivation; Systems with arable irrigation farming; Systems with perennial crops; Grazing systems; General tendences in the development of tropical farm systems.

Informed livestock sector policy development and priority setting is heavily dependent on a good understanding of livestock production systems. In a collaborative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Livestock Research Institute, stock has been taken of where we have come from in agricultural systems classification and mapping; the current state of the art; and the directions in which research and data collection efforts need to take in the future. The book also addresses issues relating to the intensity and scale of production, moving from what is done to how it is done. The intensification of production is an area of particular importance, for it is in the intensive systems that changes are occurring most rapidly and where most information is needed on the implications that intensification of production may have for livelihoods, poverty alleviation, animal diseases, public health and environmental outcomes. A series of case studies is provided, linking livestock production systems to rural livelihoods and poverty and examples of the application of livestock production system maps are drawn from livestock production, now and in the future; livestock's impact on the global environment; animal and public health; and livestock and livelihoods. This book provides a formal reference to Version 5 of the global livestock production systems map, and to revised estimates of the numbers of rural poor livestock keepers, by country and livestock production system.