Are there opportunities for climate-smart agriculture? Assessing costs and benefits of sustainability investments and planning policies in Southern Africa

Integrated-Smart Agriculture: Contexts and Assumptions for a Broader Concept

“…In this perspective, this part will be structured in the following subsections: environmental impacts and climate change; new technologies and approaches; food supply and security; farming systems and crop management; multifunctionality and agricultural/rural development. [2] The new technologies and approaches are not exempt of risks and vulnerabilities [40] CSA approach is a promising solution for the sustainability [41] Some studies use the terminology of Environment-Smart Agriculture (ESA) [19] CSA is a concept presented by FAO in 2010, is known as the "triple win" approach [42] CSA practices improve the soil resilience and quality [43] The Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Everything (IoE) may bring relevant added value for the farms [44] The wireless sensor network is an interesting tool to collect data [45] The biosensors are other techniques to collect information [46] Mobile applications, big data analytics and information systems, cloud computing, drones, blockchain, artificial intelligence [47] An efficient use of the agriculture resources, such as water, soil and energy, is crucial for competitiveness and food and security [48] Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to the global warming [49] The agricultural sector contributes with about a third of the anthropogenic GHG emissions worldwide [50] The eco-efficiency is the buzzword for the sustainability [51] The rice-wheat cropping systems concern particularly the researchers specifically in South Asia [52] Africa is another world region where it is important to promote cleaner farming systems [53] Sometimes the sustainable practices are misunderstood in these countries [54] In other cases and contexts there is not a convergent view about the CSA practices [20] CSA concept has a narrow perspective about the current farming contexts and a wider debate is needed [55] Rural development may benefit from the concept of smart villages [56] Sometimes is easier to convince the entrepreneurs than the policymakers [57] For an effective CSA implementation the farmers should be involved in the policy design process [58] Vocational training and the extension services may contribute for the adoption of the CSA practices [59] The European Union invested over the last years a significant part of its budget to promote CSA practices…”

“…The rice-wheat cropping systems concern particularly the researchers [152], specifically in South Asia [51], because of its importance for the food security [153] and the problems associated with the soil quality, water scarcity, and availability of some production factors, such as labor [154]. Africa is another world region where it is important to promote cleaner farming systems [52], in a framework of CSA practices [155], and where several projects [156], and studies were carried out [157]. This considers the complexity of the African farming systems [158] and its vulnerability to the global warming [159].…”

Global externalities from avoided emissions in the Costa Rican cattle sector: opportunities for more efficient mitigation policies

“…The last is because the atmosphere itself is classified as such (public good), i.e., its use has no rivalry and no exclusivity [4]. Therefore, any mitigation action can be considered as a generator of global environmental benefits [5] and, on purely economic grounds, it is in humanity's best interest [6].…”

“…Indeed, the livestock sector is likely to be one of the most complex and interlinked sectors for mitigation policies [7], and this may lead to situations where no country feels encouraged to carry CC mitigation policies, from the individual (national) economic rationality, since benefits will not be delimited to the funders of actions: they are shared globally [5,8]. Put another way, national climate plans may not be (sufficiently) put into practice, as costs are often confined to a singular (or a group of ) agent(s), while other countries would be receiving positive externalities from the interventions [1,9,10] This might be the essence of the problem, well characterized by the United Nations' Secretary General in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: "(…) Like the coronavirus, GHG respect no boundaries.…”

“…This paper performs a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of a climate policy in the cattle sector of the country, with the inclusion of the global positive externality from emissions reduction. We assess the relevance of such benefits for the attractivity of this Costa Rican climate policy; and our hypothesis is that this economic valuation (of climate policies' carbon-balances) can increase the societal profitability of such actions [5].…”