Climate change is a foremost word in today’s socio political debates due
to its tremendous importance in many fields including agriculture. Carbon
dioxide emission mainly due to modern day industries and transportation have
resulted global warming and finally the climate change. Climate change has
created a series of endless dangers to the man kind and its wellbeing. In this
connection, temperature rise. Sea level rises, droughts, flash floods,
landslides, are in the forefront. Nevertheless, many industries that depend
directly on nature have impacted heavily due to the unpredictable climate
changes and extreme conditions.
Impacts of Climate Change and expected shortfalls in Agriculture
Agriculture the oldest industry was practiced without much problems and
worries since centuries. The industry was encompassed its sustainability with
the help of favourable climate conditions. However, recent climate change has
started to make significant damages and losses. In this connection, drought,
floods, extreme temperature and winds have negatively impacted to the
agriculture and its production. According to FAO, it is predicted food
production issues and more losses in the upcoming decades. Recent Central Bank
Report have evidenced slow GDP growth due to climate change.(CBSL Annual
report., 2017) Water and irrigation will be a severe problem in the future.
Changes in the monsoon patterns have been noticed alarming us that all these
projections are not nightmares. Negatives of climate change have a severe
impact on crop production. Further, low yield and quality losses are expected
due to the extreme heat conditions. The food security has been identified as a
global challenge with these issues.
In Sri Lankan condition, the Island experience extreme climate
conditions and has ranked as fourth country among the countries face climate
hazards in the global climate risk index (Global Climate risk index. 2018). Sri
Lanka experiences floods and significant damages in recent consecutive years. According
to the Global Climate Index, the annual losses due to climate impacts 1 623.16 USD
The policy dialogues have been set off both in
regionally and internationally to suppress the negative impacts of climate
change. However, the climate change is concerned as a man made catastrophic
event lead the entire man kind in to a severe condition. On this backdrop FAO
has suggested Climate Smart Agricultural practices as a remedy to the losses
and damages to agriculture due to climate change impacts.
What is Climate
Smart Agriculture (CSA)
The concept of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) was
introduced by FAO at the Hague
Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010.The CSA
approach guides to the required actions
for the transformation and redesign of Agricultural systems to support
development and ensure food security aspects .CSA helps for
developing agricultural strategies to withstand the negative impacts of climate
change. Three main objectives have been set off to comply with CSA,
in this regard, sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes;
adapting and building resilience to climate
change; and reducing
and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions under possible events are vital.
Under the CSA, stake holders are provided agricultural
strategies that suitable to adapt to their local conditions .These strategies
have been practiced elsewhere and proven the suitability. In this regard, the Climate-Smart Agriculture
Sourcebook of FAO has included a wide range of knowledge to policy makers, programme managers,
sectoral experts, academics, extensionists and farmers. On this backdrop,
Farmers are taught to cultivate crops that are better adapted to the hazards of
climate change. Moreover, farmers will grow the best combination of crops and
adapt the most suitable practices through learning and testing under CSA.
Why CSA is promoted
World is facing some severe issues such as population
rising, resource depletion, climate change etc. The development direction of
the world has been carefully planned by giving a due attention to the
particular matters. The United Nations (UN) is
expected to adopt the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development. Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN has
introduced CSA under five principles to implement along with 2030 Agenda of
Sustainable Development for its member countries. These principles are, Improving efficiency in the use of resources
is crucial to sustainable agriculture;
Sustainability requires direct action to conserve, protect and enhance
natural resources; Agriculture that
fails to protect and improve rural livelihoods, equity and social well-being is
unsustainable; Enhanced resilience of
people, communities and ecosystems is key to sustainable agriculture and
Sustainable food and agriculture requires responsible and effective governance
mechanisms. FAO has
included crop and livestock production, fisheries and aquaculture and
forestry as the main arms of agriculture. Balancing social, economic and
environmental considerations of the particular sections have been considered
under particular five different principles providing a framework for policy
dialogue and a platform for developing appropriate policies, strategies,
regulations and incentives.
Many countries have accepted the practices under CSA.
According to FAO study issued in 2016,
32 of the 189 countries that had submitted Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions for the Paris Agreement specifically referenced CSA.
Further, Approximately 50 countries have been endorsed, or identified that
actions build capacity of adaptation and mitigation of risks in agriculture due
to climate change. Therefore, it is
crucial to implement these actions in Sri Lankan context too not only as a
timely requirement but to minimize the upcoming shortfalls.
The promoted actions under CSA
Many thematic areas and possible practices have been
identified under CSA. Among them, Sustainable
crop production and farming practices like use of good quality seeds and
planting materials of resistance varieties; crop mix, intercrops or crop rotations;
integrated pest management, integrated
chemical use are important. The
sustainable crop production mainly coupled with integrated practices to reduce
the need of external inputs and increase the efficiency of
resources utilization. The recycling and re use has been promoted to minimize
the cost of production the impact on environment.
Sustainable livestock industry is also vital against
climate change impacts. Deep-rooted grasses and legumes have expected to use to
improve the sequestration of soil carbon in grass lands. Restoring organic
carbon in grass lands and reduction of grass land degradation are expected to
be reducing adopting the particular practice. Further, it has suggested shifts
in species and breeds, improved feed management, sustainable grazing practices,
silvopastoralism and on and off-farm diversification to withstand the impacts
of climate change.
Sustainable value chain approach is recommended to
make food systems more environmentally sustainable and climate-smart. In this
regard, the food system’s carbon footprint will be considered in applicable
places. For instance, measures and strategies are needed to reduce the food
losses at each step since they have emitted greenhouse gases during the
production process. The existing food
supply chains consume more energy at different steps. Therefore, CSA recommends
using sustainable methods to overcome the massive use of particular resources. In
this regard, reduction of energy loss and use of rational modes of energy use
at possible steps have been emphasized as good practices. For instance, it is
recommend using of bio mass instead of fossil fuel in appropriate steps of the
food supply chains under CSA.
Climate change mitigation through the improved use and
development of genetic resource is also considered under CSA. Crop wild relatives are expected to use in
the purpose of developing valuable traits like water stress tolerance, drought
resistance and resistance to pest or diseases
to build resilience to climate change impacts.
Climate change impacts to cause higher evaporation and
transpiration rates, reduced groundwater recharge and reduced soil moisture,
and a higher incidence of soil Stalinization. In this connection, sustainable
soil and land management practices are promoted under CSA to ensure the soil
moisture and organic carbon content in the soils.
Climate change has a significant impact on the components of water cycle. Changes and variations in the rainfall patterns will affect irrigation
sources like river runoff and groundwater recharge. Sustainable water use and adaptations are
introduced to ensure the water availability under CSA. In this regard,
Rainwater harvesting, minimal use of water and waste water treatment, water use
efficiency measures and watershed management procedures are some examples of
options under CSA.
Sustainable practices have been introduced to
fisheries and aquaculture sector also under CSA. The sector is predicted to be
vulnerable to many short falls due to climate change and sea level rising. Sustainable
water management practices; selective breeding and genetic improvements;
improved feed management; strengthened emergency procedures and bio security
measures have been included in to the
recommended steps under CSA by FAO.
Climate smart forestry has been introduced to the
regions where majority depends on this primary industry. Climate change is expected
to impact on the forests and forest-dependent people. For the sake of forestry,
sustainable management of forests, reduce deforestation and enhancement of
forest carbon stocks (REDD+) has been concerned under the steps in CSA.
Essential components that helps to adapt the practice
of CSA
Few important areas can be identified under this
topic. The requirements to implementation, adaptation, knowledge dissemination
and institutional set up are major arms under this umbrella.
Climate information and data banks: Reliable
weather information is extremely important factor in agriculture. All most all
farming decisions are directly based on the climate. Nevertheless, CSA is mainly
backed by the technology and modern science including scientific weather
forecasts. In this connection, farmer
specific climate information source is a pressing need. That has been
identified in Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka 2016-
2025. Identifying spatial and timely requirement of climate information of
farmers is essential to develop famer centric climate information dissemination
systems. Identifying the communication
gaps in climate information dissemination is another vital fact when catering
to the to the information demand. In his connection, ICIMS is a timely relevant
tool (Integrated Climate Information Systems) to help farmers to adapt and
practice CSA. The interaction between the existing traditional knowledge and
modern scientific knowledge would be used under ICIMS to provide more accurate
climate information to the famers. Enabling
feedbacks and collecting data from farmers are good
approaches to ensure the credibility of information and upgrade famer knowledge
towards the climate change. FAO has identified this information need and
created many programmes. i.e. FAO has
provided climate information, measuring tools and communication tools to
young farm women in rural Nepal to help their crop management decisions
against frequent weather changes. Maintaining
climate information data banks/ centres is also important. Such data collections
at farmer level can be an asset to both farmers and policy makers to practice and
promote suitable techniques under CSA.
Youth and children: United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has identified youth
and children as one of the major groups
that could act as the care takers of the environment. They are dynamic and well
educated than the previous generation.
In this connection, the Article 6 on Education of The UNFCCC has
highlighted the importance of, Training and
Awareness of such groups. These youth can transfer the knowledge and
information to the farmers about modern day practices and technology. The youth
groups are needed motivate to develop enterprises especially in rural areas to
promote green jobs and generate such opportunities that emit less amount of
Carbon Dioxide. UN has implemented such programmes to avoid impacts of climate
change in some areas especially in Africa. Morover, promoting green jobs among youths in
agricultural areas under CSA is also have started by in some areas .i.e Nepal. However, it is yet
to be practiced in many other places.
Policy frame work and evaluation: Assessment,
monitoring and evaluation are identified as essential components of CSA in planning
and implementation making decisions on the use of natural resources.
Assessments on both past and future impacts of climate variability and change
on agriculture and the needs of vulnerable of communities have to be taken
in to consideration under CSA as a prerequisite. CSA options should be assessed
for their effectiveness in achieving desired goals related to food security,
climate change adaptation and mitigation and related to other development
goals.
Local agricultural policies should be enriched with
CSA practices and measurers along with particular evaluation and monitoring
process. The commitment and collaboration of all stakeholders that involves in agriculture sector
planning is required to formulate country specific CSA policies. However, adaptive management approaches would
require that includes innovation, real-time monitoring and evaluation, learning
among stakeholders, and restrategizing due to the dynamic nature of climate.
Since CSA has
many sectors like stakeholders, disciplines and different spatial and
time requirements, the transition to CSA requires changes at many levels of
policy making. To adders these requirements, FAO has introduced a theory of change for CSA and recommended set of steps for the smooth run
of the integration of CSA approaches in
policy making at the national level. These steps ensure the CSA objectives at local,
national and regional levels. Four broad areas of action have been introduced
in the theory of change for CSA based
on a country’s needs. In this connection, the development of an evidence base
to motivate, support and monitor change; continuous dialogue with stakeholders;
the formulation of tools to enable change; innovative and multidisciplinary
approaches to create and sustain change in food and agricultural systems are
the suggested steps to the policy makers.
Conclusion
CSA is a timely related adaptation practices to Sri
Lankan context. Some of these practices have been introduced and recommended by
FAO and other international organizations like World Bank already .(World
Bank; CIAT. 2015). National adaptation plan for climate change also has
included the same recommended practices
under CSA in to the priorities in the upcoming years. The Island experience
extreme weather conditions. Nevertheless, Majority of the rural people
(Approximately 70%) have occupations directly or indirectly related to the
agriculture. Therefore, the sustainable agriculture should be promoted to
withstand the shocks of climate change. On this point, CSA is a good practice to
be adapted in to in Sri Lankan Context.
Reference
1: Climate-Smart Agriculture Sourcebook Summary, Second edition, Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2017
2: YOUTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-climatechange.pdf
4: Youth in action on climate change: inspirations from around the world
Youth in action on climate change: inspirations from around: https://www.uncclearn.org/sites/default/files/inventory/unfccc287.pdf
5: World Bank; CIAT. 2015.
Climate-smart agriculture in Sri Lanka. CSA Country Profiles for Africa, Asia,
and Latin America and the Caribbean Series. Washington D.C.: The World Bank
Group.
6: Eckstein, D.,
Künzel, V. and Schäfer, L., 2017. Global Climate Risk Index 2018. Germanwatch.
Available online: www. germanwatch. org/en/cri (accessed on 23 January 2018).
7: Annual Report
2017, Central Bank of Sri Lanka
8: National
Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka 2016 -2025, Climate
Change Secretariat Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment
