This study would not have been initiated and carried out in its full breadth without the intellectual and financial support of FAO and the ample facilities made available in IIASA's Land Use Change (LUC) project. In particular we wish to acknowledge the foresight and the support of the respective former Directors of the Land and Water Development Division of FAO, Dr. Wim Sombroek and Dr. Robert Brinkman and the Director of IIASA, Prof. Gordon MacDonald.
The keen interest in this study of Dr. Nikos Alexandratos and Dr. Jelle Bruinsma of FAO's ES Department, in relation to the FAO study on World Agriculture, has been highly appreciated. Specifically, the assistance provided in scrutinizing early results has significantly contributed to the quality of the study. In this regard we also wish to express our appreciation to Mr. Maarten van t'Riet for his valuable comments.
The CRU05 half-degree latitude/longitude gridded monthly climate data has been supplied by the Climate Impact LINK Project (UK Department of the Environment, Contract EPG 1/1/16) on behalf of the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia.
We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the colleagues in the LUC Project at IIASA: to Ms. Sylvia Prieler for providing help with GIS and data issues in numerous instances, and to Ms. Cynthia Enzlberger-Vaughan for editing the report.