ABSTRACT
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the earth's surface has become progressively warmer during the last three decades, with temperatures in each decade exceeding those in the preceding decade since 1850. Agriculture has been identified as one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change. In each country, national partners identified two sites where the impact of climate change was becoming evident on crops grown by farmers and where farmers would potentially be willing to participate in an experimental process to bring in more diversity. Climate change scenario analysis was used for the identification of present and future climate-related stresses at the selected study sites. While plant breeders and other scientists can count on a range of tools to identify sources of germplasm with promising adaptation traits that they can incorporate in their crop improvement programmes, access to the germplasm continues to be constrained by a number of challenges.
