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Managing Climate Change Impacts on Food Production and Security in Sri Lanka: The Importance of Climate-Smart Agriculture

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Food Security and Climate-Smart Food Systems

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Abstract

Sri Lanka is increasingly concerned about the impacts of climate change on food production, food security, and livelihoods. This has been mostly discussed in terms of climate impacts on crop productivity (food availability), with little emphasis on other key aspects, namely food access and use. This chapter, based on existing literature, adopted a food system model to obtain a better perspective on food security issues in Sri Lanka. These issues include diminishing agricultural productivity, food loss and wastage along supply chains, low rural poor subsistence resilience, and the prevalence of high under-nutrition and infant malnutrition. This review indicates that ensuring food security requires actions beyond climate-resilient food production systems to take an integrated approach that can promote the climate stability of the entire food system, while addressing nutritional issues emerging f rom climate change impacts. There is, therefore, an urgent need for settlers to work towards a climate-smart agricultural framework that will tackle all aspects of food security. Besides the output of a few crop species, our study displays a lack of research into the consequences of climate change on Sri Lanka’s food system. More such studies are required to examine how climate change can affect other components of food system, including the productivity of a diverse range of food crops, livestock, and fisheries, and to focus attention on the avenues of an environmentally-induced nutritional insecurity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are extremely thankful to Dr. Michael R. Reed, Emeritus Professor, and former Director—International Programs for Agriculture at the University of Kentucky, USA and Dr. R. Kirby Barrick, Emeritus Professor and former Dean, Agricultural Education and the Communication, University of Florida, USA, for reviewing the initial drafts, making helpful comments and offering valuable suggestions. Their sincere cooperation is highly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. South Eastern University of Sri Lanka and Professor in Water Resources Management, Department of Zoology and Environmental Management, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

    Mohamed Mujithaba Mohamed Najim

  2. Department of Biosystems Technology, Faculty of Technology, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, University Park, Oluvil, Sri Lanka

    V. Sujirtha & Muneeb M. Musthafa

  3. Water and Desert Research, Prince Sultan Institute for Environmental, King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Mirza Barjees Baig

  4. Utah State University – Eastern Campus, Logan, Utah, USA

    Gary S. Straquadine

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  1. Mohamed Mujithaba Mohamed Najim
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  2. V. Sujirtha
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Correspondence to Mohamed Mujithaba Mohamed Najim .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Environment, Human Security & Governance​ (CERES), Université Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco

    Mohamed Behnassi

  2. The Prince Sultan Institute for Environmental, Water and Desert Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Mirza Barjees Baig

  3. Department of Animal Production and Biotechnology, Hassan II Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine Institute (IAV), Rabat, Morocco

    Mohamed Taher Sraïri

  4. The Prince Sultan Institute for Environmental, Water and Desert Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Abdlmalek A. Alsheikh

  5. Environmental, Water and Desert Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Ali Wafa A. Abu Risheh

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Najim, M.M.M., Sujirtha, V., Musthafa, M.M., Baig, M.B., Straquadine, G.S. (2022). Managing Climate Change Impacts on Food Production and Security in Sri Lanka: The Importance of Climate-Smart Agriculture. In: Behnassi, M., Baig, M.B., Sraïri, M.T., Alsheikh, A.A., Abu Risheh, A.W.A. (eds) Food Security and Climate-Smart Food Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92738-7_6

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