Climate-smart agriculture global research agenda: scientific basis for action

Abstract

Background: Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) addresses the challenge of meeting the growing demand for food, fibre and fuel, despite the changing climate and fewer opportunities for agricultural expansion on additional lands. CSA focuses on contributing to economic development, poverty reduction and food security; maintaining and enhancing the productivity and resilience of natural and agricultural ecosystem functions, thus building natural capital; and reducing trade-offs involved in meeting these goals. Current gaps in knowledge, work within CSA, and agendas for interdisciplinary research and science-based actions identified at the 2013 Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture (Davis, CA, USA) are described here within three themes: (1) farm and food systems, (2) landscape and regional issues and (3) institutional and policy aspects. The first two themes comprise crop physiology and genetics, mitigation and adaptation for livestock and agriculture, barriers to adoption of CSA practices, climate risk management and energy and biofuels (theme 1); and modelling adaptation and uncertainty, achieving multifunctionality, food and fishery systems, forest biodiversity and ecosystem services, rural migration from climate change and metrics (theme 2). Theme 3 comprises designing research that bridges disciplines, integrating stakeholder input to directly link science, action and governance.

Mitigating N<sub>2</sub>O emissions from soil: from patching leaks to transformative action

“…Soil scientists specializing in N 2 O emissions could help address where and how intensification would have the largest impact on food and nutrition security with minimal environmental impact, by seeking out experiments in currently underrepresented geographic locations and cropping systems, e.g. by investing in climate-smart agricultural projects in developing countries (Marques de Magalhães and Lunas Lima, 2014; Steenwerth et al, 2014).…”

The climate-smart village approach: framework of an integrative strategy for scaling up adaptation options in agriculture

“…Every CSV site has its own theory of change (ToC; a narrative description of the logical causal chain from research activities to impact) linked to national priorities to ensure that it is consistent with initiatives and actions across different scales. The process builds on Lipper et al's (2014) theory of climatesmart agriculture (CSA).…”

“…It focuses on food security and national development goals and, where possible, it also aims to reduce or remove GHG emissions , Steenwerth et al 2014. Recent analyses indicate that although several CSA programs and on-farm studies were successful, there is only weak uptake of many innovative CSA practices and technologies (Campbell et al 2014, Westermann et al 2015.…”

“…Climate change complicates this because its impacts will vary across locations. Effective implementation therefore requires an integrated approach in which science, technology, and decision making interact with local socioeconomic conditions and cultures (Steenwerth et al 2014). …”

Effects of lines and inoculants on nutritive value and production costs of triticale silages

“…Forage resources and their utilization will be modified in the future because of soil and climate constraints (Steenwerth et al, 2014). Triticale has been a crop of future promise.…”