Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) (orclimate resilient agriculture) is a set of farming methods that has three main objectives with regards toclimate change.[1][2] Firstly, they useadaptation methods to respond to theeffects of climate change on agriculture (this also buildsresilience to climate change). Secondly, they aim to increaseagricultural productivity and to ensurefood security for a growingworld population. Thirdly, they try to reducegreenhouse gas emissions from agriculture as much as possible (for example by followingcarbon farming approaches). Climate-smart agriculture works as an integrated approach to managing land. This approach helps farmers to adapt their agricultural methods (for raisinglivestock andcrops) to theeffects of climate change.[2]
The most effective approach to enhancing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is to involve the relevant organizations and government. This will demonstrate the duties and responsibilities of the government and the supporting institutions in facilitating the advancement of CSA practices. Assessing risks necessitates contemplating climate-smart agriculture. The CSA can assist in the research of the introduction of new crop varieties to address the changing climate.[3]
There are different actions to adapt to the future challenges for crops and livestock. For example, with regard to rising temperatures andheat stress, CSA can include the planting ofheat tolerant crop varieties,mulching, boundary trees, andappropriate housing and spacing for cattle.[4]
There are attempts to mainstream CSA into core government policies and planning frameworks. In order for CSA policies to be effective, they must contribute to broader economic growth and poverty reduction.[5]
The termclimate-smart agriculture has been criticized as a form ofgreenwashing for big businesses.[6][7]
The World Bank described climate-smart agriculture (CSA) as follows: "CSA is a set of agricultural practices and technologies which simultaneously boost productivity, enhanceresilience and reduceGHG emissions."[2] and "CSA is an integrated approach to managing landscapes—cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries--that address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change."[2]
FAO's definition is: "CSA is an approach that helps guide actions to transformagri-food systems towards green and climate resilient practices."[1]
CSA has the following three objectives: "sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions".[1]
Others describe the objectives as follows: mitigate the adverseimpacts of climate change on agriculture, stabilize crop production, maximize food security.[8][9]
Climate change is altering global rainfall patterns. This affects agriculture.[10]Rainfed agriculture accounts for 80% of global agriculture.[11] Many of the 852 million poor people in the world live in parts of Asia and Africa that depend on rainfall to cultivate food crops. Climate change will modifyrainfall,evaporation,runoff, andsoil moisture storage. Extended drought can cause the failure of small and marginal farms. This results in increased economic, political and social disruption.
Water availability strongly influences all kinds of agriculture. Changes in totalseasonal precipitation or its pattern of variability are both important.Moisture stress during flowering, pollination, and grain-filling harms most crops. It is particularly harmful to corn, soybeans, and wheat. Increasedevaporation from the soil and acceleratedtranspiration in the plants themselves will cause moisture stress.
There are many adaptation options. One is to develop crop varieties with greaterdrought tolerance[12] and another is to build local rainwater storage. Using small planting basins to harvest water in Zimbabwe has boosted maize yields. This happens whether rainfall isabundant or scarce. And in Niger they have led to three or fourfold increases in millet yields.[13]
Digital technologies allow farmers to adapt to changing rainfall patterns through remote sensing of soil moisture, IoT-based irrigation control, and data analytics for rainfall forecasting.[14]
Climate change can threaten food security andwater security. It is possible to adapt food systems to improve food security and prevent negative impacts from climate change in the future.[15]
Furthermore, there is alsofossil fuel consumption for transport andfertilizer production. For example, themanufacture and use ofnitrogen fertilizer contributes around 5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.[17]Livestock farming is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.[18]
Farm animals' digestive systems can be put into two categories:monogastric andruminant. Ruminant cattle for beef and dairy rank high in greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, monogastric, or pigs and poultry-related foods, are lower. The consumption of the monogastric types may yield less emissions. Monogastric animals have a higher feed-conversion efficiency and also do not produce as much methane.[19] Non-ruminant livestock, such as poultry, emit much less greenhouse gas.[20]
There are many strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture (this is one of the goals of climate-smart agriculture). Mitigation measures in the food system can be divided into four categories. These are demand-side changes, ecosystem protections, mitigation on farms, and mitigation insupply chains. On the demand side, limitingfood waste is an effective way to reduce food emissions. Changes to a diet less reliant on animal products such asplant-based diets are also effective.[21]: XXV This could includemilk substitutes andmeat alternatives. Several methods are also under investigation to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming. These include genetic selection,[22][23] introduction ofmethanotrophic bacteria into the rumen,[24][25] vaccines, feeds,[26] diet modification and grazing management.[27][28][29]Strategies and methods for CSA should be specific to the local contexts where they are employed. They should include capacity-building for participants in order to offset the higher costs of implementation.[30]
Carbon farming is one of the components of climate-smart agriculture and aims at reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
Carbon farming is a set of agricultural methods that aim to store carbon in thesoil andbiomass. The technical term for this iscarbon sequestration. The overall goal of carbon farming is to create a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere.[31] This is done by increasing the rate at which carbon is sequestered into soil and plant material. The increase of biomass from roots and the soil'smicrobiome leads to an increase in theorganic matter content of the soil. Increasing organic matter content in soils aids plant growth, improvessoil water retention capacity[32] and reducesfertilizer use.[33]Sustainable forest management is another tool that is used in carbon farming.[34] Carbon farming is one component of climate-smart agriculture. It is also one way toremove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Agricultural methods for carbon farming include adjusting howtillage and livestockgrazing is done, using organicmulch orcompost, working withbiochar andterra preta, and changing the crop types. Methods used in forestry includereforestation andbamboo farming. As of 2016, variants of carbon farming reached hundreds of millions of hectares globally, of the nearly 5 billion hectares (1.2×1010 acres) of world farmland.[35].jpg)
To increase the effectiveness and sustainability of CSA interventions, they must be designed to addressgender inequalities anddiscriminations against people at risk.[37]: 1 Women farmers are more prone to climate risk than men are. Indeveloping countries, women have less access compared to men to productive resources, financial capital, and advisory services. They often tend to be excluded from decision making which may impact on their adoption of technologies and practices that could help them adapt to climatic conditions. A gender-responsive approach to CSA tries to identify and address the diverse constraints faced by men and women and recognizes their specific capabilities.[37]
Climate-smart agriculture presents opportunities for women in agriculture to engage in sustainable production.[38]
FAO has identified several tools for countries and individuals to assess, monitor and evaluate integral parts of CSA planning and implementation:[39]
The Climate-Resilient Agriculture (CRA) Index is a tool designed to assess and improve the resilience of agricultural systems to climate change. Two distinct versions of this index exist, each with a unique purpose and scope:
The CRA Index is aimed at benchmarking national agricultural resilience across countries. It uses nine indicators grouped into three dimensions: agricultural productivity and resource use efficiency, environmental sustainability and climate impact, and socio-economic resilience. It helps categorise nations into four resilience levels: Highly Resilient, Moderately Resilient, Low Resilience, and Very Low Resilience. This index provides policymakers with insights to prioritise interventions and enhance national-level climate adaptation strategies.[41]
The CRA Index for India evaluates climate resilience within the country's diverse agro-climatic zones. It employs 26 indicators spanning environmental, technological, socio-economic, and infrastructural dimensions to assess inter- and intra-zone resilience variations. This region-specific framework supports the development of tailored strategies to address local challenges and improve agricultural adaptability to climate change.[42]
Both indices offer valuable insights for addressing the impacts of climate change on agriculture. While the global CRA Index focuses on international benchmarking and national-level strategies, the CRA Index for India targets regional disparities to guide localised interventions.
The EU has promoted the development of climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices[43] as part of theEuropean Green Deal Policy.[44] A critical assessment of progress was carried out using different multi-criteria indices covering socio-economic, technical and environmental factors.[45] The results indicated that the most advanced CSA countries within the EU are Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. The countries with the lowest levels of CSA penetration are Cyprus, Greece and Portugal. Key factors included labor productivity, female ownership of farmland, level of education, degree of poverty andsocial exclusion, energy consumption/efficiency and biomass/crop productivity.[45] TheHorizon Europe research programme has created a focus on CSA and climate-smart farming within the EU.[46][47] Projects deal with co-creation among stakeholders to change behavior and understanding within agricultural value chains. Investigative CSA studies on pig, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain farms have been carried out in Denmark, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and Lithuania, respectively.[48]
The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate/AIM4C) is a 5-year initiative to 2025, organized jointly by the UN, US and UAE.[49] The objective is to rally around climate-smart agriculture and food system innovations. It has attracted some 500 government and non-government organizations around the world and about US$10 billion from governments and US$3 billion from other sources.[50] The initiative was introduced duringCOP-26 in Glasgow.[51]
TheCGIAR as part of the AIM4C summit in May 2023 called for a number of actions:[52] Integration of initiatives from the partner organizations, enabling innovative financing, production of radical policy and governance reform based on evidence. And lastly, promotion of project monitoring, evaluation, and learning
Several actors are involved in creating pathways towardsnet-zero emissions in global food systems.[53]
Four areas of focus relate to:
Livestock production (beef, pork, chicken, sheep and milk) alone accounts for 60% of total global food system GHG emissions.[53] Rice, maize and wheat stand for 25% of the global emissions from food systems.
The greatest concern with CSA is that no universally acceptable standard exists against which those who call themselvesclimate-smart are actually actingsmart. Until those certifications are created and met, skeptics are concerned that big businesses will just continue to use the name togreenwash their organizations—or provide a false sense ofenvironmental stewardship.[7] CSA can be seen as a meaningless label that is applicable to virtually anything, and this is deliberate as it is meant to conceal the social, political andenvironmental implications of the different technology choices.
In 2014The Guardian reported that climate-smart agriculture had been criticized as a form of greenwashing.[6]
Contradictions surrounding practical value of CSA among consumers and suppliers may be the reason why the European Union is lagging with CSA implementation compared to other areas of the world.[54]
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