Building Capacity to Assess Impact of Climate Change/Variability and Develop Adaptive Responses for the Mixed Crop/Livestock Production Systems in the Argentinean and Uruguayan Pampas (Agustín Gimenéz, Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria, Uruguay)

The Argentinean and Uruguayan Pampas constitute one of the major food producing regions of the world. This project aims to further develop capacity and to establish, use and maintain an agricultural systems network in the Pampas to assess the impact of climate change/variability and develop adaptive responses for the mixed grain/livestock production systems. This project is based on the premise that one of the most effective means for assisting agricultural stakeholders to be prepared and adapt to possible climate change is to help them better cope with current climate variability. The proposed activities will integrate crop/pasture simulation models and climate change scenarios in a common platform to assist planning and decision-making at the farm level. The developed system will be used to assess the impacts of climate change/climate variability on farmer income and to study the vulnerability of different types of mixed production systems. The integrated models will also be used to define whole-farm adaptive measurements better adjusted to cope with climate variability under current global climate scenarios. The system will then be used to identify whole-farm adaptive measurements for global climate change scenarios and impact assessment of policy decisions.

Countries and sectors: Argentina and Uruguay; with application to other environments and production systems, particularly mixed crop/livestock systems. Agriculture.