Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Gradually, the farmers and governments may adopt technol-
ogies and production techniques that take the climatic changes
into account and thus reduce its impact. From the perspective
of a developing country like India, a sustainable development
agenda will be the prudent way to address the concerns over
climate change (Sathaye et al., 2006). Finally, it is important
to consider how the agricultural sector in developing countries
may have directly responded to climatic changes. The adap-
tation in African countries is minimal relative to Asian coun-
tries due to poor economic policies which have undermined
any incentives to appropriate adaptation to climatic change in
the agricultural sector (Anonymous, 2001d). The response to
losses in agricultural production to climatic changes that could
dampen their effects may, at least in the short run, be an adjust-
ment of prices. However, in these countries, since agricultural
products are also for export and these countries tend to be price
makers on the world commodities market, a loss in production
is unlikely to have any effect on prices for most agricultural
products for most countries (Reilly et al., 1994; Deaton, 1999).
Agriculture is not well prepared to cope with climate change
especially in Southern Africa and Asia (Lobell et al., 2008). This
means that our food systems must focus on building resilience
as well as the ability to adapt to a warming climate. As these
attributes become more appreciated, they also will lead to
greater innovation in agriculture and food sectors (Niggli et al.,
2009). Intensive agriculture has neglected traditional skills
and knowledge. Organic agriculture always has been based on
practical farming skills, observation, personal experience and
intuition without reliance on modern inputs, which needs to be
adopted in today's climate-changed scenario for manipulating
complex agro-ecosystems, breeding locally adapted seeds and
livestock, producing on-farm fertilisers and inexpensive nature-
derived pesticides (Tengö and Belfrage, 2004).
1.9
Agricultural GhG mitigation potential
Farming practices that conserve and improve soil fertility are
important for the future of agriculture and food production.
Organic agriculture systems are built on a foundation of con-
serving and improving diversity by using diverse crops, rotations
and mixed farm strategies. The diversity of landscapes, farm-
ing activities, fields and agro-biodiversity is greatly enhanced
in organic agriculture (Niggli et al., 2008), which makes these
farms more resilient to unpredictable weather patterns that result
