example, can be converted into an automated vehicle allowing it to sow a field autonomously. Motorized mechanization has increased significantly across the world in recent years, although reliable global data with broad country coverage exist only for tractors and only up to 2009. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the adoption of motorized mechanization has stalled over the past decades. Automation technologies are increasingly used for managing livestock, though evidence on adoption is lacking. Global automatic milking system sales have increased over recent years, but adoption is likely mostly in Northern Europe, and likely almost absent in low- and middle-income countries. Automated feeding machines for both cows and poultry also exist, but data and evidence regarding their adoption trends and drivers is likewise scarce. Measuring the overall employment impacts of agricultural automation is difficult because it requires large amounts of data tracking all the transformations and the associated reallocation of workers both upstream and downstream. While automation technologies reduce labour needs for the newly automated tasks, they also generate new labour demand for other tasks, such as equipment maintenance and operation. Agricultural automation can also stimulate employment by allowing producers to expand production and by creating other agrifood systems jobs. This is especially true when it happens in context of rising scarcity of rural labour, as is the case in high-income countries and many middle-income countries. On the other hand, if forcedly promoted, for example through government subsidies in contexts of abundant rural labour, it can lead to labour displacement and falling or stagnant wages, particularly affecting poor and low-skilled workers. Effects of climate change on yields Climate change and agriculture are interrelated on a global scale. Global warming affects agriculture through changes in average temperatures, rainfall, and weather extremes (like storms and heat waves); changes in pests and diseases; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods; and changes in sea level. Global warming is already affecting agriculture, with effects unevenly distributed across the world. Future climate change will probably negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries, while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative. Global warming will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups, such as the poor. Crop alteration and biotechnology Plant breeding Crop alteration has been practiced by humankind for thousands of years, since the beginning of civilization. Altering