Climate Change Adaptation - Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security - page 264

Table 12.8 (continued)

Adaptation option Description of the option

21. Agro-horticulture,
agro-forestry

Agro-horticulture and agro-forestry are more tolerant to drought and fl ood
compared to food crops
22. Cooperative farming Useful for poor farmers with small landholdings. Farmers joining together can
adopt new technologies and bear more risks
23. Use of nanotechnology To increase nutrient- and water-use effi ciency
24. Use of nonconventional energy Use of solar and wind energy to substitute fossil fuel-based conventional energy
sources

25. Use of biofuel Use of biofuel, particularly from nonedible crops and crop residues, in

conjunction with fossil fuel

26. Relocating crops into alternate
areas

Identifying the crops and regions that are more sensitive to climate changes/
variability and relocate them in more suitable areas

27. Indigenous technical
knowledge

Harnessing indigenous technical knowledge of farmers for weather forecasting
and crop management

crop varieties, water-saving technologies, chang-
ing planting dates, integrated farming system,
growing different crops, integrated pest manage-
ment, crop insurance, conservation agriculture,
improved weather-based agro-advisory, and
improved nutrient management.

over the long term. Some of these can be further
avoided, reduced, or delayed by effective reduc-
tion in global net greenhouse gas emissions.
Agriculture and forestry hold great potential for
mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through
afforestation, soil carbon management, and better
management of livestock and cropping emis-
sions. Making the right energy choices for the
future from among our abundant resources and
technologies will often be an issue of which
energy source, or combination of sources, best
suits a particular context. World's greatest need is
for low emission technologies that are competi-
tively priced, resilient, and fl exible enough to
cope with a range of possible future energy chal-
lenges and demands. All options are still in the
mix for a future energy system with many niches
and opportunities.
To adapt to climate change, farmers will
need to broaden their crop genetic base and use
new cultivars and crop varieties. They will need
to adopt sustainable agronomic practices such
as shift in sowing/planting dates, use of cover
crop, live mulch and effi cient management of
irrigation, and reduce the vulnerability of soil-
based agricultural production systems through
the management of soil fertility, reduced tillage
practices, and management of the cycle of soil
organic carbon more effi ciently in grasslands
and cropping systems. There will be a need to
monitor pathogens, vectors, and pests and
assess how well natural population control is
working.

12.15 Conclusions

As climate change unfolds through the early
decades of the twenty-fi rst century, adaptation
will become the pivotal response to maintain
food security and self-suffi ciency, to retain
vibrant rural communities, and to sustain glob-
ally important agricultural exports.
Much needs to be done to enable society to
adapt to conditions that are already changing, and
to further change, which may now be largely
unavoidable. Early preparation to adapt is both
sound practice and likely to confer national ben-
efi t and competitive advantage under almost any
likely climatic outcome. Furthermore, it is highly
likely that many of the adaptations developed in
one country will have great value in helping other
countries and societies to stabilize food produc-
tion and to offset or avoid some of the more seri-
ous consequences of climate change. This is a
role for which past contributions and current
expertise equip it well to contribute solutions to
this global challenge.
Adaptation alone cannot absorb all the