Preface

Extract

Weather and climate are among the major risk factors with the potential to impact upon farming performance and management. Extreme weather and climate events such as severe droughts, floods, or temperature shocks can often strongly impede sustainable farming development, particularly in the tropics and sub-tropics. Factors such as climate variability and change can contribute to the vulnerability of individual farms, as well as that of entire rural communities. These factors can also have particular impact on regional and global food security. Recent weather and climate research efforts have demonstrated the importance of targeted forecasting and scenario analysis as a way to increase the overall preparedness of farmers and farm business managers, which contributes substantially to the improvement of overall outcomes.