Table 3.
Priority research questions on extreme events and food security: Food system transformation
| Food system transformation | lower effort | How does crop diversification at the household, community, and regional scales mediate food insecurity during extreme climate events? |
| How can food production and supply chains be made robust to disruptions from extreme events affecting multiple regions, or the same region sequentially? | ||
| What climate mitigating steps (e.g., nationally determined contributions, climate-smart agriculture) will also help provide resilience against extreme events? | ||
| What is the effect of agroecological management of food systems on farmer vulnerability to extreme events? | ||
| In what ways does insurance enhance or undermine food security in the face of extreme events? | ||
| higher effort | What does governance for resilient food systems look like? | |
| What are the major obstacles in developing resilience to extreme events in small-scale farming systems? | ||
| What are the most effective approaches for enhancing adaptive capacities at local and regional levels? | ||
| What are the practical tools and policies for the world’s poor within the scope of limited resources, institutions, infrastructure, capacity, to adapt to extreme events and food insecurity in the near to medium term? | ||
| What are some feasible policy (top down) or community (bottom up) pathways for different sectors to enhance the resilience of food security to extreme events? | ||
| What are policies that make farming systems less vulnerable to extreme events, without negatively affecting other sustainable development goals? | ||
| How does land access affect rural vulnerability to extreme events, and what has been the effect, globally, of land reform efforts on food security and poverty in the face of extreme events? | ||
| What policies are required to ensure that efficiency gains in food distribution systems enable widespread food security without harmimg local and regional producers? | ||
| How can society help establish complex agricultural ecosystems at the farm, watershed, and community levels? | ||
| What are the major barriers undermining the effective uptake of adaptation strategies and how can the limitations associated with these barriers be addressed? | ||
| What are the key societal adaptations required to deal with synchronous crop failures? | ||
| What are the most cost-effective strategies to reduce the impacts of production shocks on food access for the world’s poor? | ||
| What policies prevent extreme events from eroding the capacity of government to protect the food security of citizens? |