Climate change is
turning the lives of farmers upside down. Unpredictable weather patterns,
shorter growing seasons, droughts, extreme temperatures, and increased exposure
to pests and crop diseases pose daunting problems to smallholder farmers around
the world especially in the tropics, where people tend to be more reliant on
natural resources. Climate-smart agriculture techniques can help farmers adapt
to and prepare for impacts in order to preserve and even improve their
livelihoods.
With a population expected to balloon to 9.8 billion by
2050, climate-smart agriculture is crucial to global food security, as well:
Smallholder farmers currently provide more than 80 percent of the food consumed in large parts of the developing world,
particularly South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Climate-smart agriculture isn’t distinct from sustainable
agriculture; rather it’s a way of combining various sustainable methods to
tackle the specific climate challenges of a specific farming
community. The first step is to assess the particular climate risks, since a
farm facing prolonged water shortages will need different strategies than one
confronting frequent flooding, for example. We use a variety of tools to assess
the climate risk and vulnerability of a landscape, taking the local ecosystems
and the specific crop into account. Finding the right combination to manage a
specific farm’s climate challenges and to build resilience to future impacts is
what makes climate-smart agriculture “smart.
“Where drought and prolonged dry seasons are the main
risks, a climate-smart approach might focus on planting cover crops or mulching
to improve soil structure, water infiltration and retention, and overall soil fertility,”
Rainforest Alliance environment director Martin Noponen explains. “In places
where the risks are heavy rain and flooding, a climate-smart approach would
likely focus on trenching, planting cover crops, and controlling surface water
runoff with activities like vegetation barriers.”
“In other words,” Noponen adds, “climate-smart agriculture
is not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
The 3 Pillars of Climate-Smart Agriculture
Any climate-smart program aims to:
- Improve farmer
productivity, and as a result, livelihoods;
- make farms more
resilient to climate impacts they’re facing now, and to those likely to
hit in the future;
- and, where feasible,
curb greenhouse gas emissions associated with growing food.
Here are some of the areas in which we help implement
climate-smart methods:
Crop Management
Once an assessment of climate impacts and risks has been
conducted, climate-smart strategies tailored to a particular landscape, farming
community, or even individual farm can be determined. In cocoa, for example, pruning
is essential, but it has to accord with the local climate risks: Where there is
extreme rainfall, pruning should be done more often to ensure stronger trees
that recover faster, whereas in prolonged dry periods, a farmer needs to avoid
pruning so much that primary branches and trunks are exposed to too much
sunlight.
Soil Management
Heavy rainfall can wash away fertile top soil, especially
on sloping land. Planting ground cover helps keep soil in place in the event of
heavy rains—and it’s extremely beneficial in drought-prone regions, too,
because it helps retain moisture in the soil. In flood-prone areas, farmers can
build drainage systems to keep nutrient-rich topsoil from being washed away;
trenches can also help control excess water and keep soil where it needs to be.
Planting on contours, such as hills or natural terraces, is an effective way to
cut down on soil erosion, as well. Mulching applying organic matter from crop
residues to the soil—can also help.
All practices that improve soil quality and structure also
improve productivity—a core goal of all climate-smart agriculture. Healthy
soils are also important carbon sinks that hold carbon dioxide and keep it out
of the atmosphere, thus helping fight climate change.
Pest And Disease
Management
Global warming can give rise to pests and diseases that can
reduce yields drastically and even destroy entire farms. Rising temperatures
have helped the roya fungus, for example, to proliferate and
wipe out coffee farms all over Central America. In a changing climate, the
tried-and-true ways of battling pests and diseases often fail; desperate
farmers may be tempted to increase the amount of pesticides, but
over-application will only increase costs, harm beneficial insects, and
increase the risk of contaminating people and the environment.
Climate-smart agriculture trainings provide farmers with
the knowledge they need to apply just the right amount—and at the right time of
year—to combat these newly proliferating pests. Investing in pest-resistant
seedlings can also help. When it comes to weeds, we advise farmers in any
climate situation to use manual weeding as much as possible, taking aim at
noxious weeds while leaving soft weeds that can actually replenish soil and
prevent nutrient-rich top soil from eroding
Water Conservation
Agriculture consumes 70 percent of the world’s available supply of
freshwater. As the planet continues to heat up, water shortages—already a
problem in many regions—will become a more severe threat. Harvesting rainwater
is one way for farms to prepare for water shortages. Communities can dig ponds
lined with bamboo to better retain the water. On individual farms, there are
several ways to collect rainfall, from simply placing barrels outside to
creating more sophisticated systems that channel rain from roofs into barrels
through a series of gutters and pipes. Traditional irrigation methods can also
help address water stress on farms. Using watering cans is labor-intensive and
potentially wasteful, since very dry earth can’t absorb large amounts of water
at once but placing bamboo sticks or bottles filled with water next to plants
can create low-tech, slow-drip irrigation.
Our commitment to climate-smart agriculture
The Rainforest Alliance has long been at the forefront of
developing and implementing climate-smart agriculture solutions. Climate-smart
methods are a key part of our 2020 Sustainable Agriculture
Standard. In collaboration with the World Cocoa Foundation and our
research partners CIAT and IITA, we created science-based training materials
for specific cocoa-growing regions and made them available to the public online
in 2018; we’re continuing to create more such guides for other
landscapes and crops. For smallholder farmers, learning to adapt to climate
changes now and to prepare for climate shocks in the future can mean the difference
between surviving and perishing.
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