Richard Rampersaud
Our previous article addressed human beings “right to food’’ and how climate change can severely impact food supplies. I should mention, however, that the right to food doesn’t mean the right to steal food or produce from another’s garden, farm or home, although some may see “tiefin” mangoes as their right!
As part one of this series discussed, climate change is mashing up our food production systems. Increased heat, intense rainfall and extreme weather events lead to flooding, coastline degradation and droughts. The silver lining? Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). While not a magic solution, it provides building blocks that strengthen our agri-food supply chain and build resilience to this huge threat, which, according to all scientific evidence, is accelerating as humans continue to burn fossil fuels and destroy nature.
What is CSA and how can it help save our food supplies for present and future generations?
I’m often asked this question. The answer is science; specifically, agribio-environmental science mixed with logic and common sense. In fact, some CSA practices are forgotten traditional farming practices, not taught to younger generations, or ignored as farmers shifted towards dependence on chemical solutions. Fundamentally, CSA aims to increase agricultural productivity with two approaches: adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation simply means coping with today’s changed climate, and mitigation refers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, climate change’s main cause. CSA integrates sustainable agricultural practices, innovative technologies and policy frameworks to ensure food security in the climate crisis. Essentially, if our agri-food production systems become more adaptive, meaning they can withstand and bounce back relatively quickly from extreme weather events and shocks, and provide more trees for capturing carbon from the air, then we’re better equipped to combat this threat.
Let’s examine Adaptation Practices more closely. The heart of crop and livestock survival is water. As we say, water is life. Good water management practices include rainwater harvesting (collecting and storing rainwater from rooftops) for irrigation and animal drinking, and efficient farm water distribution systems, like drip or micro irrigation systems (delivering water from tanks/ponds directly to plant roots), reducing evaporation, wastage and ensuring plant roots get sufficient water.
Healthy soil is also crucial. Healthy soils equal healthy foods which equal healthy lives. Proper soil health management practices include adding organic matter into the soil, like compost or manure, using organic bio-fertilisers like eggshells, seaweed extracts and compost teas and using beneficial microbes and organisms.
Tilling soil infrequently, perhaps once annually rather than after every crop, reduces soil loss and erosion while preserving earthworm and millipede habitats, organisms maintaining soil fertility. Using cover crops (eg pumpkin or cucumber) during non-planting times, helps prevent direct soil exposure to sun and rain, improving soil fertility and water retention.
With good water management and soil health improved, increasing biodiversity (having different types of plants/animals in one place) is next. Farmers can grow fruit trees (coconut, citrus, pommerac etc.) alongside pollinator-attracting (like bees) plants like marigolds and basil that simultaneously repel not-so-good insects like aphids and white flies, mimicking natural ecosystems. We must re-think monoculture (only one type of crop) systems which don’t allow for biodiversity, sustainability and overall healthy food production systems.
Crop rotation and diversification practices are vital, as they improve soil health, reduce pests, and increase yields. A good example of crop rotation is growing a fruit crop like tomatoes, followed by a root crop like sweet potatoes, a leafy crop such as lettuce and finally, a bean crop like pigeon peas or bodi.
Water and soil aren’t the entirety of agriculture; livestock and crops also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three main agriculture-generated greenhouse gases.
To reduce emissions, livestock diets must be improved to reduce animal digestion-related methane emissions. Simply put, animal ‘farts’ must be reduced - believe it or not, those farts add up to be a big problem! Another mitigation practice involves changing rice farming practices (usually grown in flooded paddies). These paddies create anaerobic (without oxygen) methane-producing conditions, compounding the livestock emission problem. Farmers can also reduce nitrous oxide release simply by placing granular nitrogen-based fertilisers underground, near plant roots.
CSA uses technologies like precision agriculture, including GPS, remote sensing, AI, sensors, and biotechnology for creating new climate stress-resilient crop and resistant pests and disease varieties, renewable energy solutions, digital tools, apps and data analytics to optimise field-level management of crop and livestock farming, ensuring efficiency and resilience. One technological example is microphone and camera use in animal housing to detect coughing or unusual sounds within which can help detect illnesses early.
Implementing these practices and technologies can help farmers adapt to climate change and build resilient food production systems, an absolutely critical responsibility. By focusing on resilience, efficiency, and environmental health, climate-smart agriculture aims to secure food systems for future generations, who, just like us, have the right to food.
Richard Rampersaud is the Agribusiness and Value Chain Specialist at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, St Augustine.
richard.rampersaud@iica.int
The foregoing was a weekly column by EarthMedic and EarthNurse NGO to equip readers to face the climate and health crisis.
