Agriculture production through both crop cultivation and animal husbandry produces significant greenhouse gases; however, global agricultural production offers many opportunities to mitigate its climate change impacts through effective adaptation strategies.
Farmers have historically adjusted to local climate variations over centuries. Unfortunately, however, their ability to do so may not be sufficient to stave off future climate change’s negative consequences.
Adaptation Planning
Adaptation planning is an activity in which farms or other agricultural entities create strategies to mitigate climate change impacts. It typically entails research and education as well as actual changes to farming practices to mitigate its negative effects, with adaptations often consisting of actions designed to reduce vulnerability of farming systems to climate change impacts; increase their ability to respond quickly when potential negative climate shifts emerge; or transform farming operations so as to take full advantage of anticipated future conditions.
Agriculture is highly vulnerable to weather conditions and variations, which constitute the major source of inter-annual variability in crop production worldwide (e.g. 15-35% yield variation). Thus it is likely that existing climate risks will intensify under future climatic conditions – hence it is imperative that more attention is paid towards understanding its impacts and developing effective adaptation strategies.
At a management unit level, many adaptation strategies exist, such as altering crop varieties or planting dates to increase resilience against drought or heat stress. Such marginal adaptations within existing systems may help offset or mitigate negative climate change impacts while increasing positive ones; multiple studies have demonstrated this ability as it buys time until mitigation measures can be put in place.
Farmers often face barriers that prevent them from engaging in adaptation activities, with lack of money and access to technology/information being the two most frequently reported obstacles. This can be overcome through programs providing financial assistance through grants or other mechanisms; providing drought resistant varieties; or by employing soil water conservation practices like terracing.
Furthermore, this study shows that family size has a positive and significant relationship with farmers’ adoption of adaptation strategies like terracing practice, income diversification, altering planting dates and livestock and crop diversity as adaptation strategies against adverse effects of climate change and variability (Deressa et al. 2008; Negash & Yohannes 2011; Tessema et al 2013). These results support previous findings (Deressa et al 2008; Negash & Yohannes 2011; Tessema et al 2013). This result is consistent with previous findings (Deressa et al 2008; Negash & Yohannes 2011; Tessema et al 2013).
Adaptation Practices
Agriculture is an extremely dynamic and adaptive industry, constantly adapting to various environmental stresses ranging from market price changes and input cost increases, land-use changes, labor shortages, pest invasions and adverse weather conditions. Climate change adaptation offers opportunities for agriculture to mitigate risks, increase resilience of systems to future disturbances and take advantage of opportunities as they arise – though such efforts must occur on a large scale and be integrated into larger management approaches.
Adaptation practices can range from minor tweaks to major overhauls of an entire farm operation, including changing planting dates, tillage practices and fertilizer usage as well as crop diversity strategies. A key principle among adaptation practices is managing for the long term: this requires greater planning than simply responding to current conditions but instead taking into account how climate change will have unpredictable yet potentially permanent ramifications on farm operations.
One of the greatest difficulties associated with adaption implementation is overcoming barriers to adoption. This may require allocating sufficient resources to assist effective action and meeting resource demands such as for food production and ecosystem services, among other needs. There can also be discrepancies between national adaptation policy goals and context-specific adaptation needs at local scales.
Research priorities should focus on improving existing agricultural risk management, creating more accurate representations of how climate drivers impact agriculture, assessing likely effectiveness and adoption rates of different adaptation options, as well as creating more resilient agricultural systems. All stakeholders – farmers, agribusiness, and policymakers alike – should be involved in this work and should consider values important to them all when developing adaptation responses.
Establishing adaptation strategies should involve partnerships among scientists sharing information, federal agencies providing tools and funding, regional cooperators, community partners (such as tribal participants sharing traditional knowledges), regional cooperators, regional cooperators, community partners (such as tribal participants sharing traditional knowledges (TKs) to focus attention on culturally significant impacts) as well as tribal participants sharing traditional knowledges (TKs). Such an approach will ensure a range of adaptation activities are taken on and implemented successfully with minimal social, economic and ecological costs attached.
Adaptation Policy
Climate change adaptation may be undertaken either reactively after climate changes occur, or proactively to lessen projected effects such as sea level rise, melting glaciers and permafrost thawing, more intense extreme weather events, altered water availability or altered land cover changes. By developing adaptation strategies which minimize risks while taking advantage of any opportunities that arise, adaptation efforts may help mitigate exposure while capitalizing on potential advantages that come their way.
Households and firms alike often invest in adaptation measures already, such as planting heat-resistant crops or building defenses against storm surges. Unfortunately, however, this investment often passes on costs to other users such as neighbors without taking into account potential long-term social benefits. To address this, governments could provide incentives and subsidies to encourage adaptation investments by households and firms that will increase resilience while decreasing climate risk.
Enhancing agricultural productivity to maintain food security under changing conditions is an essential adaptation strategy, but should not come at the cost of ecosystem services and biodiversity. To this end, agricultural producers and government agencies must seek “nature-based solutions”, which include restoring natural landscapes to improve water quality and soil health; creating wetlands; encouraging conservation tillage techniques like terrace farming that protect and conserve soil; as well as employing conservation grazing practices which reduce erosion; no-till farming that decreases runoff; as well as conservation grazing practices like conservation grazing that protect soil; using no-till agriculture or no-till agriculture which reduce runoff and runoff.
Water is an indispensable crop input, and climate change’s effect on seasonal rainfall or its pattern has profound ramifications on agricultural production. A decrease in rainfall can result in reduced yields and moisture stress during flowering, pollination and grain filling that harms most crops; increased evaporation from soil and increased transpiration by plants themselves can also exacerbate moisture stress conditions.
Adaptation Markets
Agriculture is highly sensitive to climate change and its consequences. Crop scientists have demonstrated how even minor weather events can have dramatic impacts on yields, further compounded by its economic significance in many nations. Climate change thus threatens food security in poor countries by decreasing farm income and contributing to poverty and malnutrition; yet adaptation measures receive far less attention than mitigation efforts.
Adaptation markets provide investors with an opportunity to invest in solutions that assist farmers to adapt to climate change while contributing to sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Such investments include soil carbon preservation, agroforestry practices, low input agricultural practices and other techniques designed specifically for small farms to mitigate its harmful impacts. The Adaptation Economy project sheds light on this unexplored aspect of climate finance by making it simpler for investors to identify solutions which make a difference both to communities and the planet.
Climate change’s impacts on agriculture vary by region and country. Some may benefit from warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons, while other may experience extreme weather events which disrupt yields or create new agricultural challenges (Figure 1).
Climate change may also impact crop nutritional quality and decrease livestock productivity, making agriculture less resilient to global demand and necessitating significant investments to build climate-resilient agriculture practices. To combat this potential damage, significant investments must be made in agriculture to develop climate-proof practices and secure its continual availability as global demand rises.
Climate change is estimated to cause approximately USD$5 trillion worth of economic damages globally, with poorer nations bearing an even larger portion. To mitigate the impacts of climate change on agriculture, several measures must be implemented at both macro and micro levels: adaptation planning, practice choices adapted to specific situations, policy support mechanisms and adaptive markets. Agriculture will play a vital role in providing essential nutritional food and services to humanity worldwide. By taking these actions, agriculture can continue to offer essential services and nourish the global population. Additionally, they will strengthen agriculture’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration through measures like no-till farming, cover cropping, agroforestry, and nutrient management.
