Adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture to Preserve Agriculture from Future Climate

Instability

Malaika Amir

22020508
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Summary

Climate change is very hazardous for the stability of ecosystem. Its effects almost every sector,
but agriculture is most vulnerable to climate change. Developing countries mainly contribute to
agriculture and they are ones who are most effected by climate change. Agriculture needs to be
stable to assure food availability in the future. To overcome the damages from climate change on
agriculture, countries should adopt Climate Smart Agricultural approach. It introduces
agroforestry and various other cropping techniques to make agriculture climate resilient.
Fortunately, it has proven to be drought resistant When implemented with efficient institutional
management, can increase production from 30 to 40 percent. To work efficiently, national
institutions will collaborate through international institutions and get funds from Green Climate
Fund to aid agriculture of developing countries. Researches show that benefits of CSA outweigh
cost for implementing it in the long run. In addition to technologies, methodology for selecting
them for different areas needs to be accurately determined to alleviate maladaptation. It is
challenging to determine contribution of every farmland in productivity to allocate subsidies.
Climate is still unpredictable, so it is very difficult to say with certainty that how this approach
will work in future.
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Climate Change, not something new, has got lime light recently. Climate change is
mainly caused by accumulation of greenhouse gases in to the atmosphere. It is difficult to
estimate the science of climate change accurately, but it can be quoted with certainty that climate
is changing. There can be various reasons for changing in Earth’s temperature, but the main
reasons for change are natural processes and anthropogenic activities. Earth’s temperature is
accelerating which can bring irreversible damages to the whole world. Climate change is
negatively impacting different areas, causing melting of glaciers in one part and droughts in
another (Salinger, Sivakumar, & Motha, 2005). IPCC and several other models estimate
temperature to rise, but they are uncertain how much temperature will rise and when it will cross
threshold. Climate change affects every sector from infrastructure to health, agriculture and
various other physical threats. Since industrial revolution, humans are the cause of climate
change and at this point, they have been alarmed and they are trying to adapt and mitigate
climatic changes. IPCC reports show that to limit our temperature to 1.5 degree, rapid and drastic
actions are required ("Climate Change"). Humans need to take actions to offset the damages
caused by burning of fossil fuels. Climate change has greater impacts on topical countries, thus
damaging for developing countries. Developing countries face major consequences because they
do not have adequate assistance to outrun climatic impacts. Climate change is threatful for food
security. Inadequate assistance will give rise to hungry world ("Climate Change and Food
Security: A Test of U.S. Leadership in a Fragile World"). Economy of developing countries
mainly depends on agriculture. India and China contribute for 7.39 and 19.49 percent to total
world’s agricultural output ("List of Countries by GDP Sector Composition"). Food security is a
biggest threat therefore, countries should provoke climate smart and climate resilient agriculture.
Inefficient agriculture itself contributes to greenhouse gases. Developing countries are in need of
technologies and techniques that will mitigate climatic impacts on agriculture, so they can save
larger portion of their economic pie.

Agricultural productivity in tropical Asian countries is vulnerable not only due to rise in
temperature but also due to variation in natural monsoon patterns. Agriculture is very sensitive to
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climate, mainly depends on rainfall and accurate heat. Tropical countries are facing serious
challenges due to changed weather conditions which give rise to droughts, floods, storms and
varied rainfalls. Rising temperature reduces production of crops and increases pest proliferation.
In the short run, it just destroys crops, whereas in the long run, it affects overall economy of the
country (Sivakumar, Das, & Brunini). The issue of water scarcity has started to emerge in
various areas of countries like Africa, Pakistan and India. Research claims that the cash crop
cotton is suspected to reach its threshold if no precautionary measures are taken. Change in
rainfall patterns causes humidity and gives rise to pest infestation, which in turn induces farmers
to use pesticides. Further increase in temperature will not be able to reduce outbreak of pests.
Pesticides are very dangerous for health and malnutrition can lead to various other problems
(Nelson, 2009). Vulnerability of agriculture to climate change is an established literature and
varied precipitation patterns will ask for changed water and land regimes (Kurukulasuriya,
Pradeep, Rosenthal, & Shane, 2013). Climate change is very alarming for developing countries
because agriculture provides employment to almost 50 percent population of both Pakistan and
India. If agriculture falls (food productivity), food scarcity and unemployment will rise and
standards of living will also fall (L, 2015). IPCC report suggest that damages will be incurred in
Southern countries provoking a 30 percent decline in vegetable production and 30 to 60 percent
decline in bean-producing farmland by the end of the century ("Agriculture and climate change",
2019). Moreover, the conventional farming is inefficient and itself contributes to agriculture.
Nitrous oxide and Methane are two major greenhouse gases contributed by agricultural activities
from live stocks digestion processes and fertilizers ("Agriculture and climate change", 2019). All
the developed countries are trying to save little portion of their crops due to expected food
scarcity in future. A rise in temperature promotes damages of crop and a lot of farmers in India
have started committing suicide for not having climate resilient crops (TRTWorld, 2018).
Keeping in mind temperature rise in present and in future, sustainable agriculture is required to
fulfill the demands of the world’s population. In future, economic growth is expected to increase
which will increase world’s population, so agricultural needs to be smartly handled. This will
also allow developing countries to preserve the contribution of agriculture in GDP. A system is
required that will not only teach to adapt to climate change but also to mitigate greenhouse gases.
As far as the ways to adapt to climate change are concerned, IPCC has not mentioned organic
farming in any of the reports, which shows that the idea is not good. To introduce organic
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agriculture, we need 16 to 81 percent more land to feed the entire world. IPCC has mentioned
genetic engineering to maintain productivity but environmentalists and European government
has banned genetic tool because it is not environmentally friendly and requires more research
(Mehta, 2019). Past conventional techniques have become inadequate for current weather
patterns and Climate Smart Agricultural approach is required to curb the effects of climate
change on agriculture. Although, it is difficult for institutions to monitor every farmland,
developing countries must adopt Climate Smart Agriculture due to its uncountable benefits and
its economic, institutional and environmental feasibility.

The concept of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) allows people to manage agricultural
system effectively for climate change. Only handling agriculture effectively for climate change
can increase yield in developing countries by 7 to 15 percent ("FAO.org"). CSA has three main
objectives to follow: increase food productivity, adapt to climate change and mitigate greenhouse
gases if possible ("FAO.org"). There is no single technique to outrun the impacts of climate
change. However, there is a long list of doings to make agriculture climate resilient. If some of
the techniques are not climate resilient, they will surely enable farmers to adapt to climate
change. Nitrogen balance in crops is highly recommended because it plays a vital role in
mitigating greenhouse gases. It assumes to get maximum nitrogen surplus of 50kgN/ha by using
inorganic fertilizers according to crop demand ("DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR INTERNAL
POLICIES"). Moreover, there needs to be farm ponds and supplemental irrigation system to save
runoff for harvesting and reirrigation purposes and to provide small amount of water if the
rainfall fails to give enough amount to crops. Micro dosing, in-site moisture conservation
techniques are for short time incase of sudden weather variabilities. Climate smart breeding, high
heat tolerant crops and bundles of other CSA options can be approached for medium time
adaptation and mitigation. These techniques are regarded for the development of new and
replaced varieties to adapt to climate in future. All the above-mentioned techniques fulfill at least
one of the main objectives of Climate Smart Agriculture, if not all of them. Apart from short
term technologies, agriculture conservation can help for long term adaptation. It helps to
alleviate losses of arable land by degraded lands, minimum tillage and rotation of soil species.
Crop diversification and agroforestry are other long-term techniques. In agroforestry, trees are
grown among crops and land to prevent crops from soil erosion. Integrated farming system asks
for management of arable land by recycling waste products, of crop cultivation, and income
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generating activities. Cover crop are planted to secure soil fertility, soil erosion, control pest’s
growth and crop biodiversity, but not for harvesting purpose. Cover cropping and intercropping
enhances carbon sequestration. Crop/animal improvement is a bit technical and requires
professional assistance to implement (Thornton, et al., 2018). All of the techniques whether short
or long run performs the task of mitigation as well as environmental adaptation (see appendix 1).
When discussing these techniques, it is important to estimate the costs and benefits of CSA.

Climate Smart agriculture provides overall costs and economic benefits which makes it
viable to adopt in developing countries where rainfall patterns and droughts are the basic
problems. A recent study estimated the cost benefit analysis and showed that the CSA approach
provides overall economic net benefits and amplify resilience to climate change by its diversified
agricultural techniques. The study was conducted in Malawi to observe the benefits of CSA.
Although, the area is prone to droughts, intercropping, minimum tillage, crop rotating and
various other techniques have enabled farmers to get economic profits with net present value.
The study also emphasized the importance of CSA adoption to minimize climate variations and
maximize climate resilience and food production. It also showed the increase in yield production
which is the basic need of the hour. Furthermore, Mozambique and Zambia also showed benefits
from drought tolerant seeds with diversified seeds. The highest economic returns were observed
with the mixture of management practices and cropping patterns (Mutenje, et al., 2019). The
study suggests that CSA techniques are more profitable for drought prone areas but require
careful assessment to channel investments. It is important to analyze that which area should grow
which kind of crop based on its temperature and weather conditions. Maximized profit can be
achieved through careful allocation and then tradeoff between areas and countries (Sain, et al.,
1970). Besides adaptation, it will also enable to mitigate greenhouse gases through carbon
sequestration. Maharashtra is estimated to earn co-benefits of US$386 million from adaptation
and mitigation techniques ("Climate-Smart Agriculture"). Even though, it is difficult to estimate
the costs of implementing CSA approach, its benefits outweigh costs. Costs can be determined
and minimized through proper institutional guidance and support, which is also an important part
of Climate Smart Agriculture approach.

Apart from adoption techniques, it refers to the methodology for regulating technologies
that are the main constraints in policy implementation. Every country has its own policy frame
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work to deal with every sector of development. The agricultural frame work for each country
will remain the same. For Climate Smart Agriculture to work, national institutions are required to
deal at an international level for efficiency and tradeoff purposes. National institutions should be
monitored from time to time to estimate the productivity and adoption. As CSA approach will be
implemented in developing countries, implementation gets difficult because of financial
constraints. Green Climate Fund can prove to be very beneficial to start from somewhere. GCF is
an institution mainly designed to help developing countries to develop adaptive infrastructure
and curb their emissions (Green Climate Fund, 2019). Investment will not be a problem after
GCF institution. National institutions can subsidize agricultural development, that will
emphasize farmers to adopt new CSA technologies. Institutional management is a biggest
challenge, if regulated properly, can lead to fantastic results.

Although, Climate Smart Agriculture is a very brilliant approach, it gets very difficult to
measure the contribution of every household. There is a great heterogeneity in the CSA
techniques chosen by small household farmers, therefore makes it challenging for institutions to
keep record of every household. CSA faces backlash from small household farmers because they
bear the burden of big land owners (Aryal, et al., 2019). Inefficient methodologies for
implementing CSA can result in maladaptation (Thornton, et al., 2018). Climate change is
uncertain and it is unknown that when will climate may hit the threshold, so to select accurate
techniques for different areas is a difficult task. Political stability is required to fulfill these jobs
accurately.

CSA is a very smart technique to protect the agriculture from drastic damages by
introducing agroforestry and other management practices. To protect agriculture for food
security in future, efficient technologies needs to be adopted to outrun the hazardous effects of
climate change. However, management practices for Climate Smart Agriculture are a bit tricky
and requires sincerity from institutions. The limitation of this essay is cost analysis of CSA as
more research is required in this regard. Climate resilience in agriculture will ensure food
stability which is a huge debate now a days because climate is changing uncertainly at an
increasing rate.
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Appendix

1.
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