Practices | Climate-Smart Agriculture Guide (2024)

http://www.ifpri.org/cdmref/p15738coll2/id/128022/filename/128233.pdf

This book endeavors to respond to the challenge of growing food sustainably without degrading our natural resource base. The analysis makes use of modeling approaches that combine comprehensive process-based modeling of agricultural technologies with sophisticated global food demand, supply, and trade modeling. This approach assesses the yield and food impact through 2050 of a broad range of agricultural technologies under varying assumptions of climate change for the three key staple crops: maize, rice, and wheat. Geared toward policymakers in ministries of agriculture and national agricultural research institutes, as well as multilateral development banks and the private sector, the book provides guidance on various technology strategies and which to pursue as competition grows for land, water, and energy across productive sectors and even increasingly across borders. It can be also used as an important tool for targeting investment decisions today and going forward.

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3325e.pdf

This module describes the nature of genetic resources for food and agriculture and outlines why these resources are essential for climate-smart agriculture. After a brief description of the expected impacts of climate change on genetic resources for food and agriculture, the module highlights their role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Examples from around the world are used to demonstrate how the conservation and use of the rich genetic diversity of plants and animals both between and within species used for food and agriculture can benefit present and future generations.

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3325e.pdf

The first part of this module outlines the impacts of climate change on crop production. The second part describes the sustainable crop production intensification (SCPI) paradigm and illustrates how sustainable agriculture is inherently “climate-smart.” In describing the underlying principles of SCPI, the module draws heavily on the FAO publication Save and Grow. Save and Grow — a rich source of information, case studies and technical references — was produced following an Expert Consultation held in 2010: it is a guide and toolkit of sustainable technologies and practices, but also explores the policies and institutional arrangements for the large-scale implementation of SCPI. The module also describes options for land managers and farmers to adapt, and contribute to the mitigation of climate change. Text boxes provide examples of sustainable crop production practices, techniques and approaches for climate change adaption and mitigation.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2009.04.021

This article conducts a literature review of best practices for crop and fertilizer management, in terms of their potential for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. An overview of various agricultural greenhouse gas sources and sinks is provided as well. The investigated practices include different tillage systems, tile drainage, cropping systems, and the use of organic and inorganic fertilizers (including production and transportation). Proper management of fertilizers is key, in order to optimize yields while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions; this allows farmers to make the most of existing agricultural land, while reducing the need for conversion of further natural areas. Factors which influence the effectiveness of fertilizer use include their source, timing, rate, and placement. To meet the dual demand of food security and greenhouse gas mitigation, the article recommends ecologically intensive crop management, focused on enhancing nutrient use efficiency and yield gains. Using best management practices on high-yielding crops can contribute to mitigation through better soil carbon storage.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.4

Lin (2011) proposes crop diversification as a cost-effective method for improving the resilience of agricultural systems. Climate change will have diverse impacts on agricultural production, including greater climate variability and shifting weather patterns, which will in turn have consequences in agricultural productivity due to changes in the nutrient cycling, and more frequent pest and disease outbreaks. Lin (2011) argues that increased biodiversity will increase the resilience of agroecosystems to these climate-induced challenges, while providing a more effective delivery of ecosystem services. Diversification can take shape in a variety of forms (e.g. using different varieties) across different scales (e.g. within crop, across landscapes), meaning that many different diversification solutions are available to farmers. Lin (2011) argues that practices such as utilizing heterogeneous varieties, can increase pest and disease resistance, while agroforestry and intercropping can buffer crops from large changes in temperature and precipitation. However, uptake of these practices has been slow due to policy incentives that incentivize mono-cropping. The article argues that economic benefits of diversification strategies must be pinpointed, and put into action by policy incentives and stakeholder-based participatory approaches that suit the needs of farmers.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26322050

Climate change affects agricultural productivity worldwide. Increased prices of food commodities are the initial indication of drastic edible yield loss, which is expected to increase further due to global warming. This situation has compelled plant scientists to develop climate change-resilient crops, which can withstand broad-spectrum stresses such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, flood, submergence and pests, thus helping to deliver increased productivity. Genomics appears to be a promising tool for deciphering the stress responsiveness of crop species with adaptation traits or in wild relatives toward identifying underlying genes, alleles or quantitative trait loci. Molecular breeding approaches have proven helpful in enhancing the stress adaptation of crop plants, and recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and phenotyping platforms have transformed molecular breeding to genomics-assisted breeding (GAB). In view of this, the present review elaborates the progress and prospects of GAB for improving climate change resilience in crops, which is likely to play an ever increasing role in the effort to ensure global food security.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S006521130800802X

This review addresses possible adaptation strategies in rice production to abiotic stresses that will aggravate under climate change: heat (high temperature and humidity), drought, salinity, and submergence. Each stress is discussed regarding the current state of knowledge on damage mechanism for rice plants as well as possible developments in germplasm and crop management technologies to overcome production losses. Higher temperatures can adversely affect rice yields through two principal pathways, namely (i) high maximum temperatures that cause—in combination with high humidity—spikelet sterility and adversely affect grain quality and (ii) increased nighttime temperatures that may reduce assimilate accumulation. On the other hand, some rice cultivars are grown in extremely hot environments, so that the development of rice germplasm with improved heat resistance can capture an enormous genetic pool for this trait. Likewise, drought is a common phenomenon in many rice growing environments, and agriculture research has achieved considerable progress in terms of germplasm improvement and crop management (i.e., water saving techniques) to cope with the complexity of the drought syndrome. Rice is highly sensitive to salinity. Salinity often coincides with other stresses in rice production, namely drought in inland areas or submergence in coastal areas. Submergence tolerance of rice plants has substantially been improved by introgressing the Sub1 gene into popular rice cultivars in many Asian rice growing areas.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065211309010037

Rice is the principle staple crop of Asia and any deterioration of rice production systems through climate change would seriously impair food security in this continent. This review assesses spatial and temporal vulnerabilities of different rice production systems to climate change impacts in Asia. Initially, the review discusses the risks of increasing heat stress and maps the regions where current temperatures are already approaching critical levels during the susceptible stages of the rice plant, namely Pakistan/north India (Oct.), south India (April, Aug.), east India/Bangladesh (March-June), Myanmar/Thailand/Laos/Cambodia (March-June), Vietnam (April/Aug.), Philippines (April/June), Indonesia (Aug.) and China (July/Aug.). Possible adaptation options for heat stress are derived from regions where the rice crop is already exposed to very high temperatures including Iran and Australia. Drought stress is also expected to aggravate through climate change; a map superimposing the distribution of rainfed rice and precipitation anomalies in Asia highlights especially vulnerable areas in east India/Bangladesh and Myanmar/Thailand.

http://books.irri.org/9789712202629_content.pdf

Participatory varietal selection (PVS) is a simple way for breeders and agronomists to learn which varieties perform well on-station and on-farm and to obtain feedback from the potential end users in the early phases of the breeding cycle. It is a means for social scientists to identify the varieties that most men and women farmers prefer, including the reasons for their preference and constraints to adoption. Based on IRRI’s experience in collaboration with national agricultural research and extension system partners and farmers, PVS, which includes “researcher-managed” and “farmer-managed” trials, is an effective strategy for accelerating the dissemination of stress-tolerant varieties. PVS has also been instrumental in the fast release of stress-tolerant varieties through the formal varietal release system. This guide on PVS will complement the various training programs given by IRRI for plant breeders, agronomists, and extension workers engaged in rice varietal development and dissemination.

Crops and farming systems:
https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=climate-impacts-production&subtheme=crops

Adaptation of crops and farming systems:
https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=adaptation&subtheme=crops

Evidence of success for crops and farming systems:
https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=evidence-of-success&subtheme=crops&csSubtheme=true