Climate change and resultant increased frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and storms has put many developing countries at the risk of growing food insecurity. Yet the demand from agriculture farm is continuously increasing. Hence there is need of climate-smart agriculture that broadly works on three parameters:
- Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and farmers’ incomes
- Adapting to climate change and making farming more resilient.
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)
Following are some of the techniques used in techniques used in climate smart agriculture:
- Identifying and promoting sustainable agriculture practices and tools e.g. Organic farming; Agroforestry; Use of erosion control plants; Controlling soil moisture by farm ponds, bunds, trenching, mulching, drip irrigation etc.
- Using inputs more efficiently and effectively to grow more from less e.g. alternate wetting and drying of paddy by letting the fields drain periodically, methane emissions from flooded rice production can be cut to half. The practice save water and increase profit margin of farmers.
- Increasing the productivity of milk and meat production so that fewer animals are required to produce the same amount of milk or meat, which also reduces the emissions generated in producing that food