Integrating the complexity of global change pressures on land and water

Global agriculture is facing multi-faceted challenges, interacting with changing societies and changing environmental conditions. Major transitions in current agricultural systems are required to meet these challenges. Transition pathways need to be analyzed and facilitated in a much broader perspective, including the interaction with societal structures, non-food markets, and the Earth system. Especially the globalization of agricultural production offers potentials to increase productivity but can also endanger food security through volatile food prices or dispossession of rural poor. It thus requires better regulation and suitable institutional settings. Integrated assessment models are helpful tools for analyzing the complex interactions and for deriving multi-targeted development pathways. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.