Protocol : What are the projected impacts of climate change on food crop productivity in Africa and South Asia?

Protocol for a systematic review

From:: Department for International Development
Published: 1 January 2010

Document Type:: Protocol
Theme:: Agriculture, Climate and Environment
Authors:: Hess, T., Knox, J., Daccache, A.

Abstract

This is the protocol for a systematic review It will focus on the biophysical aspects of crops and the impact that climate change might have on crop productivity (i.e. yield per unitarea). The protocol defines the framework for the systematic review including the objectives, data search and extraction strategies, approaches for data synthesis and analysis.

This review will include a poverty reduction/development focus which has not yet been considered in previous climate change and agriculture reviews. The boundaries of this review will include:

biophysical studies only, recognising that agriculture is practiced within an economic and social context that is often location-specific;
studies that only use climate projections, or that study past climate events, but not those concerned with the underlying science of the response of crops and animals to one or more climate factors;
studies that focus on productivity of food crops and the sustainability of food systems from one year to the next, and;
studies that focus on crop productivity, omitting the forestry, fisheries, livestock and other non-food crop agricultural sectors.

The systematic review will evaluate the potential for using a production system/agro-ecological zone classification to group evidence - for example, high potential zones, hillside environments, semi-arid regions may be used to provide generic conclusions from the evidence.

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