Observed and Projected Reciprocate Effects of Agriculture and Climate Change: Implications on Ecosystems and Human Livelihoods

The objective of this chapter is to review, from several literatures, the contribution of agriculture to climate change and the reciprocal effects of climate change on agriculture and the general consequent implications on human livelihoods and ecosystems. Human activities have already had a discernible impact on the earth's climate leading to growing evidence of observable impacts of climate change on physical and biological systems. In no doubt, agriculture provides the world population of 7 billion with the food that we all eat every day. In addition, 1.4 billion people work in agriculture and more than 2.5 billion people sustain their livelihood on agriculture. But agriculture is one of the contributors of greenhouse gases to climate change and climate change affects agriculture in return. When the global mean temperature change increases beyond 3.5°C, most of the species will have very few suitable areas for their survival and will become extinct. Several hundred million people are seriously affected by climate change today, with several hundred thousand annual deaths. Human impacts of climate change include scarcity of freshwater resources, weather-related disasters, food insecurity due to agricultural loss, migration, and displacement due to loss of settlements. These recalled nations to limit their GHG emission, ensure sustainable ecosystem, food production, and economic development so as to calm down the impacts of climate change.