Introduction - Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security - page 13

Sustainable agriculture seeks to transform
agriculture into an ecologically sustainable
climate-resilient production system while at the
same time exploiting its fullest potential and
thereby ensuring food security and equitable
access to food resources, enhancing livelihood
opportunities, and contributing to economic sta-
bility. Climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) con-
tributes to the achievement of sustainable
development goals. It integrates the three dimen-
sions of sustainable development (economic,
social, and environmental) by jointly addressing
food security and climate challenges. It is com-
posed of three main pillars:
• Sustainably increasing agricultural productiv-
ity and incomes
• Adapting and building resilience to climate
change
• Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases
emissions, where possible
CRA is an approach to developing the techni-
cal, policy, and investment conditions to achieve
sustainable agricultural development for food
security under climate change. The magnitude,
immediacy, and broad scope of the effects of cli-
mate change on agricultural systems create a
compelling need to ensure comprehensive inte-
gration of these effects into national agricultural
planning, investments, and programs. The CRA
approach is designed to identify and operational-
ize sustainable agricultural development within
the explicit parameters of climate change.
Achieving the transformations required for
CRA and meeting these multiple objectives
require an integrated approach that is responsive
to specifi c local conditions. Coordination across
agricultural sectors (e.g., crops, livestock, for-
estry, and fi sheries) as well as other sectors, such
as with energy and water sector development, is
essential to capitalize on potential synergies,
reduce trade-offs, and optimize the use of natural
resources and ecosystem services.
This approach also aims to strengthen liveli-
hoods and food security, especially of smallhold-
ers, by improving the management and use of
natural resources and adopting appropriate meth-
ods and technologies for the production, process-
ing, and marketing of agricultural goods. To

offs, CRA takes into consideration the social,
economic, and environmental context where it
will be applied. Repercussions on energy and
local resources are also assessed. A key compo-
nent is the integrated landscape approach that fol-
lows the principles of ecosystem management
and sustainable land and water use.

1.6 Climate Change Adaptation

Climate change adaptation involves taking action
to adjust to, or respond to, the effects of changes in
climate, such as reduced rainfall or rising sea level.
Adaptations to climate change exist at the various
levels of agricultural organization. In temperate
regions, farm-level adaptations include changes in
planting and harvest dates, tillage and rotation
practices, substitution of crop varieties or species
more appropriate to the changing climate regime,
increased fertilizer or pesticide applications, and
improved irrigation and drainage systems.
Governments can facilitate adaptation to climate
change through water development projects, agri-
cultural extension activities, incentives, subsidies,
regulations, and provision of crop insurance. There
is considerable scope for agricultural adaptation
throughout the food chain, for example, better
postharvest storage and distribution of food, to
ameliorate the gap between good and poor years.
Easterling et al. ( 2007 ) describe a range of
options, at the level of autonomous adaptation,
for cropping and livestock systems:
• Different varieties or species with greater
resistance to heat or water stress or adapted
phenology (maturation times and responses)
• New cropping practices, including adjustments
in timing and locality of crop production, and
changed water and fertilizer management to
maintain yield quality and quantity
• Greater use of water conservation technolo-
gies, including those to harvest water and con-
serve soil moisture or, in fl ood-prone areas,
water management to prevent water logging,
erosion, and nutrient leaching

• Diversifi cation of on-farm activities and

enhancement of agrobiodiversity, with
greater integration between livestock and
cropping systems