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♤ While agriculture is the sector most vulnerable to climate change, it is also a major cause, directly accounting for about 14 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC 2007).
♤ And yet, agriculture can be a part of the solution: helping people to feed themselves and adapt to changing conditions while mitigating climate change.
♤ It is possible for agriculture to actually sequester or absorb carbon into the soil rather than emitting it. This can be done without the trade off with productivity and yields.
♤ It is possible to have higher yields, more carbon in the soil and greater resilience to droughts and heat.
♤ This is called the 'triple win’: interventions that would increase yields (poverty reduction and food security), make yields more resilient in the face of extremes (adaptation), and make the farm a solution to the climate change problem rather than part of the problem (mitigation).
♤ These triple wins are likely to require a package of interventions and be country- and locality specific in their application. This method of practicing agriculture is called 'Climate Smart Agriculture’.
23.16.1 Climate-smart agriculture includes proven practical techniques. For example,
♤ by increasing the organic content of the soil through conservation tillage, its water holding capacity increases, making yields more resilient and reducing erosion.
♤ Promoting soil carbon capture also helps mitigate climate change. Another example is integrated soil fertility management that can lower fertilizer costs, increase soil carbon and improve yields.
♤ Climate-smart agriculture gives attention to landscape approaches, for example, integrated planning of land, agriculture, forests, fisheries and water to ensure synergies are captured.
♤ These can be further strengthened by adding better weather forecasting, more resilient food crops and risk insurance to cover losses when the vagaries of weather strike.
♤ If yields increase through such practices and become more stable, it results in improved farm incomes. A more stable income helps enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers.
♤ A good number of countries are now showing that it can be done.
♤ China has been a leader in this, with programs such as the Loess Plateau now internationally famous.
♤ Brazil has also invested in good quality research and extension and is demonstrating these triple results.
♤ And small-holder farmers in Kenya are already receiving cash payments on a pilot basis for new farming techniques that will hold more carbon in the soil, even while increasing soil fertility.
Do you know?
Karnataka will soon use an immuno-contraception technique to control the elephant population in the state. The technique involves injecting the female elephant with a vaccine that triggers an immune system response to block sperm reception. The technique is reported to have been used successfully in South Africa. The Karnataka forest Department (FD) will first use this technique on captive female elephants, before using it on elephants in the wild.