Climate Smart Agriculture and Resilience

1.1. Climate Smart Agriculture

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a strategy aimed at enhancing sustainable food production by addressing food security and climate change. It boosts agricultural productivity and incomes by improving resource efficiency, reducing post-harvest losses, and minimizing losses. CSA also helps farmers adapt to climate change by minimizing losses and ensuring food security. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions through improved manure management and fertilizer use. CSA is a locally adapted approach to managing the agricultural system, considering interactions between crops, livestock, soil, water, and climate. (Matteoli et al., 2021). It involves farmers and stakeholders in decision-making to ensure culturally appropriate, economically viable, and technically feasible practices. CSA practices include crop diversification, agroforestry, integrated pest management, water-saving irrigation techniques, and improved livestock management. They aim to reduce crop failure, improve soil fertility, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve water, and improve animal health. Overall, Figure 1 highlights the potential of CSA practices to contribute to sustainable agriculture and positive environmental and social impacts. (Khatri et al., 2017).

Figure 1.

Conceptual framework for climate-smart agriculture and expected outputs

(Khatri et al., 2017).

1.2. Overview of the Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture

‘Climate change is significantly affecting agriculture worldwide, posing significant challenges to food security (Lipper et al., 2014) and rural livelihoods (Acharyya, 2022). Climate change is posing significant challenges to agriculture worldwide, including increased temperatures, reduced crop yields, heat stress on livestock, changes in precipitation patterns, droughts, floods, extreme weather events, sea level rise, salinization of agricultural land, loss of coastal agricultural land, changes in pests and diseases, and the emergence of new pests and diseases. These impacts could reduce agricultural productivity, increase food insecurity, and disrupt rural livelihoods. While some regions may experience positive impacts like longer growing seasons and increased crop yields, the overall negative impacts are expected to outweigh the positives.

1.3. Importance of Building Resilience in the Agricultural Sector

Resilience in the agricultural sector is crucial for food security, livelihood protection, rural development, ecosystem services, and climate change mitigation. Climate change, population growth, and resource scarcity threaten global food security, requiring farmers to adapt and maintain stable food production. Resilient systems create jobs, stimulate local economies, and improve access to food and resources. Ecosystems are vital for agriculture, providing services like pollination, soil fertility, and water regulation. Mitigating climate change involves reducing emissions and using climate-smart technologies. Key strategies include diversifying crops and livestock, improving soil health, investing in water management, using climate-smart technologies, and building institutional capacity (Ben et al., 2021).

Successful resilience-building initiatives include climate-smart agriculture projects, farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), and community seed banks. These initiatives help farmers adapt to climate change and improve their productivity, while also preserving local crop varieties that are more resilient to climate change than commercial varieties. By investing in research, development, and extension, we can help farmers adapt to climate change and ensure a sustainable future for agriculture.