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Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation pp 1–19Cite as

Agricultural Extension and Adaptation Under the “New Normal” of Climate Change

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Abstract

Adapting to climate change is the most serious challenge facing our species. The scale is global, trajectory of onset uncertain and impacts potentially catastrophic (IPCC 2013). As further evidence emerges and as the scramble to adapt to the ‘new normal’ intensifies, persistent problems, past failures and new challenges have the potential to converge in a perfect storm. In response, extension and advisory service (EAS) providers have a key role to play as a critical link between farming populations and sources of new information and tools, so that practices can be appropriately adapted. This chapter outlines the challenge of adapting to climate change, identifies past and present points of EAS engagement, and proposes future responses, with a focus on the constraints and conditions of smallholder farmers in the tropics, and the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter is based on a longer work by the authors (Simpson and Burpee 2014) produced through support of the USAID funded Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Brent M. Simpson

  2. Catholic Relief Services, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Gaye Burpee

Authors
  1. Brent M. Simpson
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  2. Gaye Burpee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brent M. Simpson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Life Science, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

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Simpson, B.M., Burpee, G. (2014). Agricultural Extension and Adaptation Under the “New Normal” of Climate Change. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40455-9_121-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40455-9_121-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40455-9

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