Climate Change Smart Farming Practices: A Review

Abstract

Agriculture and Climate change are related to each other in many ways. Various ill-effects due to change in climate like variation of rainfall, continuous rise in temperatures as also natural calamities such as hurricanes and typhoons and frequent droughts, have had an impact on agriculture in terms of productivity and output. Agriculture is also negatively affected from intensity of extreme climatic events such as droughts and floods and variations in rainfall patterns. Future changes in climate could spark significant loss in yield of cereal crops in different parts of the world and this yield loss could be very high for staple food crops, such as rice and wheat in underdeveloped countries. Under the above circumstances, it is extremely important for underdeveloped and developing countries of Asia and Africa to adopt measures under situations of change in climate, both at global as well as local level, so that agricultural production can be increased sustainably to feed the rising population of the country. Presently, Climate Smart Farming (CSF) or Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), as explained by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) makes an attempt to harmonize various aspects of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) through discussion of the question of both climate challenges and food security jointly. It is made of three important features, namely: (i) adaptation and building up of resilience to climate change (ii) sustainably increasing the productivity of agriculture and incomes; and (iii) lowering and finally eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, wherever possible. The approach of CSA is meant to recognize as also make viable and operationalize agricultural development that is sustainable in nature within the defined framework of climate change. In this paper we try to understand the possibilities of CSA adaptation and CSF practices in poor countries of Africa and Asia that would be influenced most from change in climate.