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Agriculture in the twenty-first century faces the challenge of meeting food demands while satisfying sustainability goals, according to a team of experts from ENDURE , a network of Europe's leading agricultural research, teaching and extension institutes with a special interest in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). In this review, the authors note that climate change is likely to increase the complexity of this challenge by affecting the distribution of some crop pests (harmful insects, plants and pathogenic agents) and the severity of their outbreaks. They explain why climate change is becoming increasingly central within the European policy agenda, mainly with respect to food security in the European Union, and expect that the issue will be recognized in the future EU research agenda. The team proposes that diversification of current plant protection strategies is needed to mitigate the effects of climate change on European agriculture. (Endure Network, 17/02/2015)

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Recent climate variability has led to variations in maize, rice, wheat and soybean crop yields worldwide. While some areas show no significant influence of climate variability, in substantial areas of the global breadbaskets, over 60% of the yield variability can be explained by climate variability. This is the conclusion of a study by Deepak Ray and colleagues at the Institute on the Environment (IonE), University of Minnesota, USA. They used detailed crop statistics time series to examine how recent climate variability has led to variations in maize, rice, wheat and soybean crop yields worldwide. Their study uniquely illustrates spatial patterns in the relationship between climate variability and crop yield variability, highlighting where variations in temperature, precipitation or their interaction explain yield variability. They also discuss key drivers for the observed variations to target further research and policy interventions geared towards buffering future crop production from climate variability. (Nature, 22/01/2015)