Climate-Smart Agriculture : Key to the Future

Agriculture is a backbone of any economy, and it is the activity by which food is produced by the optimal use of territorial resources such as land and water. Agriculture in simple terms can be defined as "the cultivation and/ or production of crop plants or livestock products".

A growing global population and changing diet are driving up the demand for food. Production is struggling to keep up as crop yields level off in many parts of the world, ocean health declines, and natural resources - including soil, water and biodiversity - are stretched dangerously thin. The food security challenge will only become more difficult, as the world will need more food for the growing population.

This rising concern of food security coupled with output productivity of lands and crop yields made scientist think something about smart agriculture/ climate-smart agriculture.

Climate-smart Agriculture is a revolution in the agriculture industry that helps to guide actions required to modify and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support the development and guarantee food security during an ever-changing climate. The most commonly used definition is provided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), which defines CSA as "agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, enhance resilience (adaption), reduces/ removes GHSs (mitigation) where possible and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals". In this definition, the principal goal of CSA is identified as food security and development; while productivity, adaptation, and mitigation are identified as the three interlinked pillars necessary for achieving this goal.

Climate-Smart agriculture (CSA) is an integrated approach to managing landscapes - cropland, livestock etc. - that address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change. Three pillars of CSA are:

1. Productivity: CSA aims to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes from crops, livestock and fish, without having a negative impact on the environment. This, in turn, will raise food and nutritional security. A key concept related to raising productivity is sustainable intensification.


2. Adaptation: CSA aims to reduce the exposure of farmers to short-term risks, while also strengthening their resilience by building their capacity to adapt and prosper in the face of shocks and longer-term stresses. Particular attention is given to protecting the ecosystem services which ecosystems provide to farmers and others. These services are essential for maintaining productivity productivity and our ability to adapt to climate change.


3. Mitigation: Wherever and whenever possible, CSA should help to reduce and/ or remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This  implies that we reduce emissions for each calorie or kilo of food, fibre and fuel that we produce. That we avoid deforestation from agriculture. And that we manage soils and trees in ways tht maximizes their potential to acts as carbon sinks and absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere.

CSA is more effective and successful, it explicitly looks for where there are synergies and trade-offs among food security, adaption and mitigation.