Climate-Smart Agriculture: Upscaling CSA with Extension PDF

**Climate-smart agriculture and how extension can help in upscaling CSA** Climate change and food and nutrition insecurity pose two of the greatest development challenges of our time. Yet a more sustainable food system can not only heal the planet, but ensure food security for all. Today, **the glo...

**Climate-smart agriculture and how extension can help in upscaling CSA** Climate change and food and nutrition insecurity pose two of the greatest development challenges of our time. Yet a more sustainable food system can not only heal the planet, but ensure food security for all. Today, **the global agrifood system emits** ***one-third*** of all emissions. Global food demand is estimated to increase to feed a projected global population of ***9.7 billion people by 2050***. Traditionally, the increase in food production has been linked to agricultural expansion, and unsustainable use of land and resources. This creates a vicious circle, leading to an increase in emissions. ***Food systems are the leading source of methane emissions and biodiversity loss, and they use around 70% of fresh water**.* **If food waste were a country, it would be the third highest emitter in the world.** Meanwhile, emissions from agriculture are increasing in developing countries -- a worrying trend which must be reversed. Without significant climate mitigation action in the agri-food sector, the Paris Agreement goals cannot be reached. Agriculture is the primary cause of deforestation, threatening pristine ecosystems such as the Amazon and the Congo Basin. Without action, emissions from food systems will rise even further, with increasing food production. **Achieving the Triple Win of CSA** The ***global agrifood system must therefore deliver on multiple fronts***. **It must feed the world, adapt to climate change, and drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions**. In response to these challenges, the concept of Climate-smart Agriculture (CSA) has emerged as a holistic approach to end food security and promote sustainable development while addressing climate change issues. *CSA is a set of agricultural practices and technologies which simultaneously boost productivity, enhance resilience and reduce GHG emissions.* Although it is built on existing agricultural knowledge, technologies, and sustainability principles, CSA is distinct in several ways. First, it has an explicit focus on addressing climate change in the agrifood system. Second, CSA systematically considers the synergies and trade-offs that exist between productivity, adaptation, and mitigation. And third, CSA encompasses a range of practices and technologies that are tailored to specific agro-ecological conditions and socio-economic contexts including the adoption of climate-resilient crop varieties, conservation agriculture techniques, agroforestry, precision farming, water management strategies, and improved livestock management. By implementing these practices, triple win results can be achieved: ***Increased productivity:*** Produce more and higher quality food without putting an additional strain on natural resources, to improve nutrition security and boost incomes, especially for ***75 percent of the world's poor who live in rural areas*** and mainly rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. ***Enhanced resilience:*** Reduce vulnerability to droughts, pests, diseases and other climate-related risks and shocks; and improve the capacity to adapt and grow in the face of long-term stresses like increased seasonal variability and more erratic weather patterns. ***Reduced emissions:*** Reduce greenhouse gas emissions of the food system, avoid deforestation due to cropland expansion, and increase the carbon sequestration of plants and soils. Finally, funding for CSA needs to be increased to align available finance with the relevance of the sector. Despite causing one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, ***agrifood systems receive 4% of climate finance***, with only a fifth of this going to smallholders. Current financial flows need to be realigned to support a sustainable agrifood system transformation. **The CSA Approach** CSA is not a set of practices that can be universally applied, but rather an approach that involves different elements embedded in local contexts. CSA relates to actions both on-farm and beyond the farm, and incorporates technologies, policies, institutions and investment.   Different elements of climate-smart agricultural systems include:  - Management of farms, crops, livestock, aquaculture and capture fisheries to balance near-term food security and livelihoods needs with priorities for adaptation and mitigation. - Ecosystem and landscape management to conserve ecosystem services that are important for food security, agricultural development, adaptation and mitigation. - Services for farmers and land managers to enable better management of climate risks/impacts and mitigation actions. - Changes in the wider food system including demand-side measures and value chain interventions that enhance the benefits of CSA.  **Key characteristics of CSA** **CSA addresses climate change** Contrary to conventional agricultural development, CSA systematically integrates climate change into the planning and development of sustainable agricultural systems. **CSA integrates multiple goals and manages trade-offs** Ideally, CSA produces ***triple-win outcomes: increased productivity, enhanced resilience and reduced emissions***. ***But often it is not possible to achieve all three.*** Frequently, when it comes time to implement CSA, trade-offs must be made. This requires us to identify synergies and weigh the costs and benefits of different options based on stakeholder objectives identified through participatory approaches. **CSA maintains ecosystems services** Ecosystems provide farmers with essential services, including clean air, water, food and materials. It is imperative that CSA interventions do not contribute to their degradation. Thus, CSA adopts a landscape approach that builds upon the principles of sustainable agriculture but goes beyond the narrow sectoral approaches that result in uncoordinated and competing land uses, to integrated planning and management. **CSA has multiple entry points at different levels** CSA should not be perceived as a set of practices and technologies. It has multiple entry points, ranging from the development of technologies and practices to the elaboration of climate change models and scenarios, information technologies, insurance schemes, value chains and the strengthening of institutional and political enabling environments. As such, it goes beyond single technologies at the farm level and includes the integration of multiple interventions at the food system, landscape, value chain or policy level. **CSA is context-specific** What is climate-smart in one-place may not be climate-smart in another, and no interventions are climate-smart everywhere or every time. Interventions must consider how different elements interact at the landscape level, within or among ecosystems and as a part of different institutional arrangements and political realities. The fact that CSA often strives to reach multiple objectives at the system level makes it particularly difficult to transfer experiences from one context to another. **CSA engages women and marginalised groups** To achieve food security goals and enhance resilience, CSA approaches must involve the poorest and most vulnerable groups. These groups often live on marginal lands which are most vulnerable to climate events like drought and floods. They are, thus, most likely to be affected by climate change. Gender is another central aspect of CSA. Women typically have less access and legal right to the land which they farm, or to other productive and economic resources which could help build their adaptive capacity to cope with events like droughts and floods. CSA strives to involve all local, regional and national stakeholders in decision-making. Only by doing so, is it possible to identify the most appropriate interventions and form the partnerships and alliances needed to enable sustainable development. **CSA addresses food security, misdistribution and malnutrition** Despite the attention paid to agricultural development and food security over the past decades, there are still about **800 million undernourished** and **1 billion malnourished** people in the world. At the same time, more than **1.4 billion adults are overweight** and **one third of all food produced is wasted**. **Before 2050, the global population is expected to swell to more than 9.7 billion people**. At the same time, global food consumption trends are changing drastically, for example, increasing affluence is driving demand for meat-rich diets. If the current trends in consumption patterns and food waste continue, it is estimated we will require **60% more food production by 2050**. CSA helps to improve food security for the poor and marginalised groups while also reducing food waste globally. **CSA addresses the relation between climate change and agriculture** Climate change is already increasing average temperatures around the globe and, in the future, temperatures are projected to be not only hotter but more volatile too. This, in turn, will alter how much precipitation falls, where and when. Combined, these changes will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, heat waves, snowstorms and droughts. They may cause sea level rise and salinization, as well as perturbations across entire ecosystems. All these changes will have profound impacts on agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change because different crops and animals thrive in different conditions. This makes agriculture highly dependent on consistent temperature ranges and water availability, which are exactly what climate change threatens to undermine. In addition, plant pests and diseases will likely increase in incidence and spread into new territories bringing further challenges for agricultural productivity. While climate change will have both positive and negative impacts on crop yields - meaning that for some crops in some areas, yields will rise while others elsewhere suffer - negative impacts have outweighed positive impacts to date***. Already, it is estimated that climate change has reduced global yields of wheat by 5.5% and of maize by 3.8%.*** *By 2090, it is projected that climate change will result in an 8-24% loss of total global caloric production from maize, soy, wheat and rice.* Where these declines in productivity occur will vary. For example, sub-Saharan Africa will be hit hard; it is estimated that across *Africa maize yields will drop by 5% and wheat yields by 17% before 2050.* The relationship between agriculture and climate change is a two-way street: agriculture is not only affected by climate change but has a significant effect on it in return. Globally, agriculture, land-use change and forestry are responsible for *19-29% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions*. Within the least developed countries, this figure rises to *74%*. If agricultural emissions are not reduced, *agriculture will account for 70% of the total GHG emissions* that can be released if *temperature increases are to be limited to 2°C*. The mitigation options available within the agricultural sector are just as cost-competitive as those established within the energy, transportation and forestry sectors. And they are just as capable of achieving long-term climate objectives. For this reason, mitigation is one of the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture. How is CSA different from other sustainable agriculture approaches? In the twentieth century, significant increases in agricultural productivity were achieved under the banner of the so-called \'Green Revolution\'. Through monocropping and an increased use of pesticides and fertilizers, crop yields around the world steadily rose. This progress, however, was made at a significant cost. Soil qualities were degraded, biodiversity reduced and pest resistance diminished. At the same time, increased pesticide and fertilizer pollution in soils and groundwater put both the environment and human health at risk. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is not yet another reincarnation of the 'Green Revolution'. To the contrary, CSA has much in common with sustainable agricultural approaches. This means that addressing climate change does not require us to discard or reinvent everything that has been learned about agriculture and sustainable development in recent decades. In fact, CSA is built upon a technical foundation that largely already exists and a range of sustainable agricultural approaches---such as sustainable agriculture, sustainable intensification and conservation agriculture---are the cornerstones of implementing CSA in practice. So how does CSA differ from sustainable agriculture? This boils down to three essential features: (i) an explicit focus on climate change; (ii) the search for synergies and negotiation of trade-offs in the pursuit of productivity, adaptation and mitigation outcomes in a broader landscape or system perspective; and (iii) the availability of new funding opportunities for agricultural development. The three big differences: **A focus on climate change:** Like other sustainable agricultural approaches, CSA is based on principles of increased productivity and sustainability. But it is distinguished by a focus on climate change, explicitly addressing adaptation and mitigation challenges while working towards food security for all. In essence, CSA is sustainable agriculture that incorporates resilience concerns while at the same time seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ***CSA = Sustainable Agriculture + Resilience -- Emissions*** **Outcomes, synergies and trade-offs** To develop interventions that simultaneously meet the three challenges of productivity, adaptation and mitigation, CSA must not only focus on technologies and practices, but also on the outcomes of interventions beyond the farm level. In doing so, it must consider the synergies and trade-offs that exist between productivity, adaptation and mitigation, as well as the interactions that occur at different levels including wider socio-ecological implications. For instance, CSA interventions at the farm/community level may affect both the social and ecological systems in place, as well as the wider landscape. Likewise, a CSA intervention that aims to increase productivity should also consider how it affects adaptation and mitigation, and how it can best optimize all three outcomes at the most appropriate level. All of this requires farmers and decision-makers to understand the synergies and trade-offs that exist between the three pillars and between different levels. To help people make informed decisions---from the farm to parliament---CSA focuses on developing metrics and prioritization tools that bring these synergies and trade-offs to the fore. **New funding opportunities** Currently, there is an enormous deficit in the investment that is required to meet food security. By explicitly focusing on climate change, CSA opens up new funding opportunities for agricultural development, by allowing the sector to tap into climate finance for adaptation and mitigation. This includes funding from, among others, the Adaptation Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund or the Special Climate Fund, as well as the Clean Development Mechanism and the Voluntary Carbon Market. Most promising of all is the earmarked allocation which has been made specifically for CSA by the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund (GEF) and the future Green Climate Fund. Key Government Initiatives on CSA; National Innovation on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) is a network project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched in February, 2011 with an outlay of Rs.350 crores. The project aims to enhance the resilience of Indian agriculture, covering crops, livestock and fisheries to climatic variability and climate change through development and application of improved production and risk management technologies. National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) The Government is implementing the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which provides the overarching framework for climate actions, through national missions in specific areas. The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of the Missions under NAPCC, includes programmatic interventions like Soil Health Card, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Mission Organic Value Chain Development for Northeastern Region, Rainfed Area Development, National Bamboo Mission and Sub-mission on Agro-Forestry. The NMSA works through adoption of sustainable development pathway by progressively shifting to environment friendly technologies, adoption of energy efficient equipment's, conservation of natural resources, integrated farming, etc. Besides, the NMSA aims at promoting location specific improved agronomic practices through soil health management, enhanced water use efficiency, judicious use of chemicals, crop diversification. **The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC)** The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) was established to meet the cost of adaptation to climate change for the State and Union Territories of India that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. This Scheme was implemented during **2015-16** mainly for supporting concrete adaptation activities dealing with mitigating the adverse effects of global climate change in various sectors including agriculture. Under the NAFCC, various projects have been sanctioned in different states i.e., Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, J&K, Meghalaya, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh etc. Climate Smart Village: Climate-smart village (CSV) is an institutional approach to test, implement, modify and promote CSA at the local level and to enhance farmers‟ abilities to adapt to climate change. The CSV adopts a portfolio of interventions to tackle the climate challenges of the agriculture sector that cover the full spectrum of farm activities. Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers and national research organisations are putting their concerted efforts into the CSVs in India. CSVs were piloted in two states of India: **Karnal district of Haryana** state and **Vaishali district of Bihar** state which later spread into districts of Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. **Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna (PMSKY):** This Scheme was planned and formulated to give more priority on water conservation and its management in agriculture with the vision to extend the area under irrigation from **1 July 2015**. The main motto of this Scheme is \'Har Khet Ko Paani\' to improve water use efficiency. \'More crop per drop\' scheme provide end-to-end solutions in water on source creation, distribution channels and its management. **Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY):** The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) introduced in the country from **Kharif 2016** season is voluntary for States/UTs as well as for farmers. States/UTs can participate in the scheme keeping in view their risk perception and financial considerations etc. From inception of the scheme till 2020-21 cumulatively 2,938.7 lakh farmer applications for a sum insured of Rs. 10,49,342 crores have been enrolled under the scheme. **Soil Health Card Scheme:** This Scheme was launched in **February, 2015** to issue soil health cards (SHC) to the farmers providing detailed information on test-based soil nutrient status of their own land along with recommended dose of fertilizers for improving productivity through judicious use of inputs. The Government of India targeted to issue 10.48 crores of SHCs since inception of the Scheme. **National Water Mission (NWM):** A Mission was mounted to ensure Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) for conserving the water sources and minimizing its wastage, and to optimize Water Use Efficiency (WUE) by 20 per cent including agriculture sector. **Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY):** It is an extended component of Soil Health Management (SHM) launched in **2015** under NMSA with the objective of supporting and promoting organic farming through adoption of organic village by cluster approach, which in turn result in improvement of soil health. **Biotech-KISAN:** It is a scientist-farmer partnership scheme launched in **2017** for agriculture innovation with an objective to connect science laboratories with the farmers to find out innovative solutions and technologies to be applied at farm level. Under this scheme, so far 146 Biotech-KISAN Hubs have been established covering all 15 agro climatic zones and 110 aspirational districts in the country. The scheme has benefitted over two lakhs farmers so far by increasing their agriculture output and income. Over 200 entrepreneurships have also been developed in rural areas. **Neem Coated Urea:** It is a form of urea fertilizer coated with neem extracted material, which acts as a slow releaser of nitrogen reducing the pest and disease infestation ultimately minimizing the usage of chemicals in farming by achieving the overall increase in crop yield. Sub-mission on Agro-forestry: This Mission was launched during **2016-17** with the objective of planting trees on farm bunds. Agro-forestry has the potential to bring sustainability in agriculture and achieving the optimum productivity by mitigating the impact of climate change. **National Livestock Mission:** This Mission was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers\' Welfare and got commenced from 2014-15 focusing mainly on livestock development through sustainable approach ultimately protecting the natural environment, ensuring bio-security, conserving animal bio-diversity and farmers\' livelihood. Impacts of National Programmes and Policies - Under NICRA, climate resilient technologies have been developed for various crops under State-of-the-art climate change research facilities established at several institutes across the country. District level risk assessment of Indian agriculture to climate change (572 rural districts) have been prepared. ICAR along with NARS has developed District Agriculture Contingency Plans for 650 districts in India and is being updated regularly. Climate-resilient villages have been developed, one in each of 151 climatically vulnerable districts under the NICRA Project and location-specific technologies have been demonstrated in these districts. - "More crop per Drop" is a strong message in overall water utilization strategy in Indian agriculture. The Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMSKY) besides MGNREGA have contributed immensely for water resources conservation and ground water recharge and utilization in the country. PMSKY contains within itself a Micro Irrigation Fund with a focus on protective irrigation and water use efficiency interventions in a climatic conscious manner. Both field crops and horticulture subsectors positively impacted with improved water use efficiency related programmes and policies. - The fertilizer policies in India have grown positively by enhancing crop production and productivity. The additional food grain production of 13.66 Mt using fertilizers avoided the conversion of 11.48 million hectares of forest land to cropland, thereby, reducing 2013 Mt of GHGs emissions. Neem coated urea has also reduced fertilizer input cost, improved nutrient use efficiency and reduced GHGs from fertilizer nutrient sources. - There has been a sincere effort to promote Zero Budget Natural farming (ZBNF) across India. It offers a commercially viable and environment friendly alternative and offer better climatic adaptation compared to conventional agriculture. - Area under agro-forestry is on upward trend towards more carbon fixation and reduced GHGs. Inclusion of pricing policy would contribute to stability of livelihoods of agro-forestry farmers of India besides environmental services. - During 2017-18, the record milk production was registered at 176.3mt in comparison with 132.4 mt during 2012-13. Several livestock related policies contributed to animal health, vaccination, fodder availability, artificial insemination besides marketing and promotion agripreneurship ecosystems in India. - 109 varieties of Field and Horticultural crops which was released by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 11th August 2024. These 109 varieties of 61 crops include 34 field crops and 27 horticultural crops. **EAS in CSA scaling up** While the public sector dominates EAS, the private sector and NGOs are increasingly supporting farmers with CSA-related knowledge. EAS promotes technologies like stress-tolerant crops, conservation agriculture, rainwater harvesting, farm ponds, and efficient irrigation systems like drip irrigation. It also provides weather advisories to help farmers adapt to climate change. EAS contributes to climate change mitigation by promoting integrated pest management, organic farming, agro-forestry, and crop rotation. Initiatives like climate field schools, seed banks, and collective farmer mobilization have shown positive impacts, along with the use of remote sensing and weather insurance. Despite these successes, scaling up remains challenging. **Lack of adequate research support:** There are three key challenges. First, there is limited documentation of successful and cost-effective CSA technologies. Second, adaptive research to enhance EAS\'s understanding of what works in different agro-ecologies and farming systems is scarce. Third, a lack of systematic evaluation of CSA practices in diverse farmer fields hinders both EAS promotion and farmer adoption. Additionally, most CSA research focuses on crops, with less emphasis on livestock and fisheries, and there is minimal extension research or guidance on effective approaches like demonstrations, trainings, climate field schools, or ICTs to address CSA components. **Lack of capacities to scale up CSA:** Significant capacity gaps exist within EAS at various levels. Field-level functionaries often lack understanding of CSA due to limited exposure to technologies and practices, and many lack skills critical for community adaptation, such as organizing farmer groups, mediating conflicts, or running climate field schools. Middle and senior-level functionaries require coordination skills for collaboration across agencies and expertise in securing climate funding and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. Organizational challenges include inadequate training mechanisms, lack of CSA-specific manuals, and insufficient funds for capacity development. Continuous capacity-building mechanisms are also absent. **Lack of a learning platform** The lack of a virtual learning platform for EAS to share technologies, experiences, and knowledge hinders its capacity development. Donors have emphasized the need for a platform involving various stakeholders, as there is limited sharing of CSA interventions among donors and agencies within the same country and across the region. Donors are also eager to learn about best practices for integrating climate change projections into current investment planning for sustainable agricultural development. **Need for regional cooperation to scale up CSA** Regional cooperation on CSA is limited in South Asia, with few examples like the Bangladesh-India-Nepal agreement with IRRI to harmonize seed systems and recognize stress-tolerant varieties across borders. Expanding such agreements to cover pest management and capacity development for EAS is needed. **WAY FORWARD** The over-arching issue identified at the policy dialogue was the need for strengthening capacities of EAS at all levels for promoting CSA. The suggested steps in this direction are as follows: **Enhance knowledge and skills related to promotion of CSA among:** - **Field level functionaries:** Strengthen staff training on technical aspects of CSA and functional aspects related to CSA promotion; - **Middle and senior management level functionaries:** Train staff on development of strategic collaboration frameworks for promoting joint planning and implementation of CSA, climate financing, policy advocacy for strengthening investments and capacities in EAS, inter-agency coordination, and establishment of learning events on CSA promotion; - **Trainers:** Enhance their capacities to develop training modules and development of master trainers on CSA aspects; - **Researchers:** Facilitate their involvement in action research so that they can play a more prominent role in disseminating CSA. **Strengthen organisational capacities to support CSA:** Strengthen knowledge management through development of a database on CSA practices and experiences/good practices deriving from CSA promotion, and organise events for experience sharing and learning. **Enhance capacities at the regional level for joint action:** - Setting up a regional level learning forum on EAS in support of CSA; - Organizing regional level exchange of information and experiences on CSA promotion and establishing regional agreements to share technologies across the region; - Organize training of senior EAS managers and trainers on aspects of climate financing and develop online courses to strengthen EAS capacities on CSA;