While agriculture is crucial to feeding people, it is strongly impacted by climate change and variability, and also contributes to it. Agriculture and land use change are responsible for around ¼ of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities(1). Climate change already impacts the quantity, quality and geographic distribution of food production from agriculture. In this special issue, entitled "Climate change and variability impacts on agriculture", the selected articles address different issues.
This special issue of Agrociencia Uruguay on "Climate change and variability impacts on agriculture" aims to highlight the contribution of science to the development of adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural sector in a variable and changing climate. The articles published show the impacts of climate change and the adaptation strategies proposed or already applied in different sectors of agriculture (e.g. perennial crops, livestock, etc.) and in different regions of the world. The different approaches developed and the diversity of case studies confirm that it is essential to strengthen the resilience of agro-ecosystems to climate change, enabling them to respond, reorganise and maintain their basic functions, while increasing their capacity to adapt.