- Background and Justification of the project:
The agricultural sector accounts for about 12 % man-made global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and contribute to global warming through about 58 % of nitrous oxide (N2O) and 47 % of methane (CH4) (IPCC, 2014). Managing GHG linked with agriculture involves strategic and local land use decisions (e.g. changes in farm management), including land clearing and restoration, reforestation, safe or organic farming, manure management, reducing chemical and insecticide use, wetland management and biofuel production etc.
The climate implications of agricultural production and practices have broadened the agricultural agenda over recent years to include responses to climate issues, and the climate change agenda has similarly subsumed agricultural production as both a contributor to climate change and, through adjustment in practices, a potential mitigating force. This project proposal describes the potential role innovative agricultural practices and technologies can play in climate change mitigation and adaptation with proper planning and implication. The policy and institutional changes are needed to encourage the innovation and diffusion of these practices and technologies to our country. Our focus throughout is on creating the necessary agricultural technologies and harnessing them to adapt their agricultural systems to changing climate will require innovations in policy and institutions as well. In our country, research and innovation capacity is similarly critical because applying new agricultural technologies generally requires careful and creative modification to reflect local agro-ecological and production conditions; including the structure and degree of integration of local input and output markets, the quality of infrastructure, and access to information and effective agricultural extension services. Countries have increasingly developed innovative measures to mitigate GHG emissions and are focusing on win-win-solutions for agriculture. Many countries are making explicit commitments also from their agricultural sector to contribute to climate change mitigation. Research in this area has been enforced during the last years and innovative ideas and new solutions have been prioritized to the state of the art of research and possibilities to transfer best-practice measures into other contexts.
Intensification of food production is often seen as necessary to meet food security goals and to spare land that can be used for biodiversity and/or carbon sequestration purposes and adopting pioneering agricultural technologies with the potential to increase yields while limiting greenhouse gas emissions is an essential step. If agriculture is to continue to feed the world, then we must enable technology to shape the farms of the future.
In addition to securing crop productivity, soil pH management affects biological diversity and functions in soils. Soil pH controls carbon and nitrogen turnover in soils with the ultimate goal of identifying pH management strategies that reduce yield-scaled N2O emissions. For managing pH and restoring soil health and hygiene, biochar and manures play a vital role in this system to mitigate or reduce carbon emission from the soil. Cost-benefit analyses will be used to illustrate the mitigation potential of soil pH management for selected regions, which can be implemented promptly and cost-efficiently. The ultimate hurdle for climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture is producing more food more efficiently under more capricious cultivation conditions, while simultaneously achieving net reductions in GHG emissions from food production and marketing. Agricultural technologies can play a central role in addressing these fundamental challenges. While most technologies have climate implications, some are of particular relevance to agriculture and climate change, especially in our country. Climate change will also lead to new pest and disease pressures. The nuances of temperature changes – e.g., fluctuating high and low temperatures could shorten dormant periods, speed pest and disease growth and change the dynamics of these populations and their resistance. On the other new technology like solar light trap will reduce the use of pesticides, they also reduce carbon emissions by decreasing pesticide demand as well as the number of in-field applications. Since a substantial proportion of the GHGs produced by agriculture are attributable to the production and application of manures and safe farming technologies will enhance inputs use efficiency could substantially mitigate emissions in agriculture.
Agricultural technology approaches like safe farming, Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies, alternative pest-disease reducing techniques or devices and digital technology platforms are a solution. They boost farmers’ profits by cutting costs and increasing yields and benefiting customers the world over. But more technological innovation is needed.
Thoughtful policy responses that encourage the development and diffusion of appropriate agricultural technologies will be crucial to enabling an effective technological response. CSA aims to simultaneously achieve three outcomes: increased productivity: Produce more food to improve food and nutrition security and safety; Enhanced resilience: Reduce vulnerability to pests, disease and other shocks; and improve capacity to adapt and grow crop using more manure and reduced emissions: Pursue lower emissions for each calorie or kilo of food produced, avoid chemical and insecticide use in agriculture and identify ways to reduce release carbon or suck out of the atmosphere.
