Climate-smart agriculture: A review of sustainability, resilience, and food security

Sunil Regmi 1 , Binisha Paudel 2

1   Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, Nepal
2   Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, Nepal

✉ Coressponding author: See PDF.

doi https://doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2024.0904028

doi

Abstract

This paper investigates Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), a comprehensive strategy aimed at improving agricultural efficiency and sustainability while addressing the challenges of climate change. It examines the economic advantages of CSA for adopters compared to traditional farming methods and assesses CSA's role in mitigating climate change, adapting to its impacts, and enhancing food security. The study reviews essential CSA practices, including agroforestry, conservation agriculture, water-efficient irrigation technologies, crop diversification, improved livestock management, and soil carbon sequestration, as well as the barriers to adoption, such as limited funding, arable land, land tenure issues, and insufficient expertise. Agroforestry and crop rotation have shown encouraging results, with agroforestry serving as a cost-effective solution for food production and environmental preservation. Dairy companies boosted milk consumption from 529,000 to 3 million liters, while farmer profits grew from $0.2 to $0.3 per liter. Rice yields have increased, from 3-4 tons to 7.5 tons per hectare. In cotton farming, CSA adopters cut input costs compared to traditional methods, resulting in long-term economic gains. Crop rotation increased maize productivity by 5–10%, while new irrigation techniques improved water efficiency by 5–35%. However, regions without CSA methods experienced significant livestock losses, highlighting the importance of widespread adoption to ensure resilience. Despite CSA’s advantages, its widespread adoption is hindered by financial and knowledge barriers. Future research should focus on optimizing multiple cropping systems, crop diversification, and no-till agriculture. CSA, particularly when integrated with technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), offers a promising path toward more adaptive and resilient agricultural practices. Broader adoption will require investments in research and resources to effectively scale CSA innovations.

Keywords:

Adaptation, Agriculture , Climate, Food security, Mitigation, Smart

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ampaire, E.L., Happy, P., Van Asten, P., & Radeny, M. (2015). The role of policy in facilitating adoption of climate-smart agriculture in Uganda. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Copenhagen, Denmark, https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.1453.2002.

Barker, R., Loeve, R., Li, Y. H., Tuong, T. P. (Eds.) 2001. Water-saving irrigation for rice: proceedings of an international workshop held in Wuhan, China, 23-25 March 2001. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). xvii, 123p.

Boomiraj, K., & Wani, Suhas, Garg, K., Aggarwal, P.K., & Kuppannan, P. (2010). Climate change adaptation strategies for agro-ecosystem : A review. Journal of Agrometeorology. 12. 145-160. https://doi.org/10.54386/jam.v12i2.1297.

Bowles, T.M., Mooshammer, M., Socolar, Y., Calderón, F., et al. (2020) Long-Term Evidence Shows that Crop-Rotation Diversification Increases Agricultural Resilience to Adverse Growing Conditions in North America, One Earth, Volume 2, Issue 3, , Pages 284-293, ISSN 2590-3322, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.02.007.

Brenda, L. (2011). Resilience in Agriculture through Crop Diversification: Adaptive Management for Environmental Change. BioScience. 61. 183-193. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.4.

Chandra, A., Mcnamara, Karen & Dargusch, Paul. (2018). Climate-smart agriculture: Perspectives and framings. Climate Policy. 18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2017.1316968.

De Pinto, Alessandro & Cenacchi, Nicola & Kwon, Ho-Young & Koo, Jawoo & Dunston, Shahnila. (2020). Climate smart agriculture and global food-crop production. PLOS ONE. 15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231764.

Dwivedi, A., Naresh, R.K., Kumar, R., & Kumar, R. (2017). Climate smart agriculture. Journal of Water Reseource and Ocean Science. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wros.20190805.11

El-abedin, T. K. Z., Mattar, M. A., Alazba, A. A., & Al-ghobari, H. M. (2017). Scientia Horticulturae Comparative e ff ects of two water-saving irrigation techniques on soil water status , yield , and water use efficiency in potato. Scientia Horticulturae, 225(July), 525–532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2017.07.044

Ehrlich, P.R., Ehrlich, A.H., & Daily, G.C. (1993). Food Security, Population, and Environment. Population and Development Review, 19, 1.

Fawzy, S., Osman, A. I., Doran, J., & Rooney, D. W. (2020). Strategies for mitigation of climate change: a review Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 0123456789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-020-01059-w

Hobbs, Peter & Sayre, Ken & Gupta, Raj. (2007). The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences. 363. 543-55. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2169.

Hufnagel, Johannes & Reckling, Moritz & Ewert, Frank. (2020). Diverse approaches to crop diversification in agricultural research. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development. 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-020-00617-4.

Imran, Muhammad & Ali, Asghar & Ashfaq, Muhammad & Hassan, Sarfraz & Culas, Richard & Ma, Chunbo. (2018). Impact of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Practices on Cotton Production and Livelihood of Farmers in Punjab, Pakistan. 21.

Kajwang, Ben. (2022). Weather based index insurance and its role in agricultural production. International Journal of Agriculture. 7. 13-25.https://doi.org/10.47604/ija.1595.

Kaptymer, B., Jemal, A., & Musa, H. (2019). Climate Smart Agriculture and Its Implementation Challenges in Africa. Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.9734/cjast/2019/v38i430371.

Kulkarni, S.. (2017). Innovative technologies for water saving in irrigated agriculture. International Journal of Water Resources and Arid Environments, 1. 226-231.

Kumar, V., & Chopra, A.K. (2009). Impact of climate change on biodiversity of India with special reference to Himalayan region-An Overview. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 1(1), 117-122. https://doi.org/10.31018/jans.v1i1.48

Lal, R. (2015). A system approach to conservation agriculture. 70(4), 82–88. https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.70.4.82A

Lal, R. (2004). Soil Carbon Sequestration to Mitigate Climate Change. Geoderma. 123. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2004.01.032.

Lal, R., Negassa, W., & Lorenz, K. (2015). ScienceDirect Carbon sequestration in soil. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 15(C), 79–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.09.002

Lawler, J.J. (2009), Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Resource Management and Conservation Planning. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1162: 79-98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04147.x

Lipper, L., Philip, T., Morgan B.C., & Braimoh, B.T. et al. (2014). Climate-smart agriculture for food security. Nature Climate Change. 4. 1068–1072. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2437.

Climate Smart Agriculture: Building Resilience to Climate Change. (2017). Germany: Springer International Publishing.

Long, T. B., Blok, V., & Coninx, I. (2015). Barriers to the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations for climate-smart agriculture in Europe : evidence from the Netherlands ,. Journal of Cleaner Production. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.06.044

Marie, L., Wybo, J., Reniers, G., & Boustras, G. (2019). Developing an innovative framework for enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure to climate change. Safety Science, 118(June 2018), 364–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.05.019

Murray, U., Zewdy, G., Galina, B., & Charles, S. (2016). Smallholder Farmers and Climate Smart Agriculture: Technology and Labor-productivity Constraints amongst Women Smallholders in Malawi. Gender, Technology and Development. 20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971852416640639.

Nair, P.K., Kumar, M., Nair, B., & Vimala (2009). Agroforestry as a strategy for carbon sequestration. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science. 172. 10 - 23. https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.200800030.

Nyasimi, M., Amwata, D., Hove, L., Kinyangi, J., & Wamukoya, G., (2014). CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, Evidence of impact: climate-smart agriculture in Africa CCAFS Working Paper, (32 pp.).

Orihuela, A. (2021). Review: Management of livestock behavior to improve welfare and production. Animal. 15. 100290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2021.100290.

Ray, P.P. (2017) Internet of Things for Smart Agriculture: Technologies, Practices and Future Direction. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, 9, 395-420. https://doi.org/10.3233/AIS-170440

Saj, S., Torquebiau, E., Hainzelin, E., Pages, J., & Maraux, F. (2017). Agriculture , Ecosystems and Environment The way forward : An agroecological perspective for Climate-Smart Agriculture. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 250(August), 20–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.09.003

Sharma, Gourav & Kunwar, Sudip & Tseng, Te Ming. (2021). Crop Diversification for Improved Weed Management: A Review. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202104.0386.v1.

Simon, G.A. (2012). Food Security: Definition , Four dimensions , History . Basic readings as an introduction to Food Security for students from the IPAD Master , SupAgro , Montpellier attending a joint training programme in Rome from 19 th to 24 th March 2012 George-André . March.

Skees, J. (2008). Challenges for Use of Index-based Weather Insurance in Lower Income Countries. Agricultural Finance Review, 68, 197-217. https://doi.org/10.1108/00214660880001226.

Tsige, M., Synnevåg, G., & Aune, J. B. (2020). Gendered constraints for adopting climate-smart agriculture amongst smallholder Ethiopian women farmers. Scientific African, 7, e00250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2019.e00250

Upadhyaya, A. (2015). Water management technologies in agriculture: Challenges and opportunities.

Vijayavenkataraman, S., Iniyan, S., & Goic, R. (2012). A review of climate change , mitigation and adaptation. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(1), 878–897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2011.09.009

Wright, L., & Fulton, L. (2005). Climate Change Mitigation and Transport in Developing Nations. Transport Reviews, 25(6), 691–717. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441640500360951

Yadav, M.L., Rajput, D. S., Chand, S., & Sharma, N.K. (2014). Constraints in livestock management practices perceived by tribal livestock owners of Banswara district of Rajasthan. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 37–41.

Published

2024-12-25

How to Cite

Regmi, S., & Paudel, B. (2024). Climate-smart agriculture: A review of sustainability, resilience, and food security. Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science, 9(4), 832-839. https://doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2024.0904028

Issue

Section

Review Articles