In many parts of the world, weather represents one of the major uncertainties affecting performance and management of agricultural systems. Due to global climate changes the climatic variability and the occurrence of extreme weather events is likely to increase leading to substantial increase in agricultural risk and destabilization of farm incomes. This issue is not only important for farm managers but also for policy makers, since income stabilization in agriculture is frequently considered as a governmental task.

The aim of this session is to discuss the state of the art research in the area of analysis and management of weather-related risks in agriculture. Both structural and non-structural measures can be used to reduce the impact of climate variability including extreme weather on crop production. While the structural measures include strategies such as irrigation, water harvesting, windbreaks etc., the non-structural measures include the use of the medium-range weather forecast and crop insurance.

The topic is at the borderline of different disciplines, in particular agricultural and financial economics, meteorology, modelling and agronomy. Thus, the session offers a platform to exchange ideas and views on weather-related risks across these disciplines with the focus on quantifying the impact of extreme weather on agricultural production including impacts of climate change, analysis of financial instruments that allow reducing or sharing weather-related risks, evaluation of risk management strategies on the farm level, development of the theory of risk management and to exchange practical experiences with the different types of weather insurance.

Selected presentations of this session at EGU 2009 can be found at http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/cr/v44/n1/

Selected presentations of this session at EGU 2010/2011 are being published at Natural Hazards and Earth System Science (NHESS) http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/special_issue137.html

Funding provided by CEIGRAM (Research Centre for the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks), Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) through project no. AGL2010-21501/AGR is greatly appreciated.