Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) (or climate resilient agriculture) is a set of farming methods that has three main objectives with regards to climate change.[1] Firstly, they use adaptation methods to respond to the effects of climate change on agriculture (this also builds resilience to climate change). Secondly, they aim to increase agricultural productivity and to ensure food security for a growing world population. Thirdly, they try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture as much as possible (for example by following carbon farming approaches). Climate-smart agriculture works as an integrated approach to managing land. This approach helps farmers to adapt their agricultural methods (for raising livestock and crops) to the effects of climate change.[2]
There are different actions to adapt to the future challenges for crops and livestock. For example, with regard to rising temperatures and heat stress, CSA can include the planting of heat tolerant crop varieties, mulching, boundary trees, and appropriate housing and spacing for cattle.[3]
There are attempts to mainstream CSA into core government policies and planning frameworks. In order for CSA policies to be effective, they must contribute to broader economic growth and poverty reduction.[4]
The term climate-smart agriculture has been criticized as a form of greenwashing for big businesses.
The World Bank described climate-smart agriculture (CSA) as follows: "CSA is a set of agricultural practices and technologies which simultaneously boost productivity, enhance resilience and reduce GHG emissions." and "CSA is an integrated approach to managing landscapes—cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries--that address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change."
FAO's definition is: "CSA is an approach that helps guide actions to transform agri-food systems towards green and climate resilient practices."
CSA has the following three objectives: "sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions".
Others describe the objectives as follows: mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture, stabilize crop production, maximize food security.[5] [6]
Strategies and methods for CSA should be specific to the local contexts where they are employed. They should include capacity-building for participants in order to offset the higher costs of implementation.[7]
Carbon farming is one of the components of climate-smart agriculture and aims at reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
To increase the effectiveness and sustainability of CSA interventions, they must be designed to address gender inequalities and discriminations against people at risk.[8] Women farmers are more prone to climate risk than men are. In developing countries, women have less access compared to men to productive resources, financial capital, and advisory services. They often tend to be excluded from decision making which may impact on their adoption of technologies and practices that could help them adapt to climatic conditions. A gender-responsive approach to CSA tries to identify and address the diverse constraints faced by men and women and recognizes their specific capabilities.
Climate-smart agriculture presents opportunities for women in agriculture to engage in sustainable production.[9]
FAO has identified several tools for countries and individuals to assess, monitor and evaluate integral parts of CSA planning and implementation:[10]
The EU has promoted the development of climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices[12] as part of the European Green Deal Policy.[13] A critical assessment of progress was carried out using different multi-criteria indices covering socio-economic, technical and environmental factors.[14] The results indicated that the most advanced CSA countries within the EU are Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. The countries with the lowest levels of CSA penetration are Cyprus, Greece and Portugal. Key factors included labor productivity, female ownership of farmland, level of education, degree of poverty and social exclusion, energy consumption/efficiency and biomass/crop productivity. The Horizon Europe research programme has created a focus on CSA and climate-smart farming within the EU.[15] [16] Projects deal with co-creation among stakeholders to change behavior and understanding within agricultural value chains. Investigative CSA studies on pig, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain farms have been carried out in Denmark, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and Lithuania, respectively.[17]
The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate/AIM4C) is a 5-year initiative to 2025, organized jointly by the UN, US and UAE.[18] The objective is to rally around climate-smart agriculture and food system innovations. It has attracted some 500 government and non-government organizations around the world and about US$10 billion from governments and US$3 billion from other sources.[19] The initiative was introduced during COP-26 in Glasgow.[20]
The CGIAR as part of the AIM4C summit in May 2023 called for a number of actions:[21] Integration of initiatives from the partner organizations, enabling innovative financing, production of radical policy and governance reform based on evidence. And lastly, promotion of project monitoring, evaluation, and learning
Several actors are involved in creating pathways towards net-zero emissions in global food systems.[22]
Four areas of focus relate to:
Livestock production (beef, pork, chicken, sheep and milk) alone accounts for 60% of total global food system GHG emissions. Rice, maize and wheat stand for 25% of the global emissions from food systems.
The greatest concern with CSA is that no universally acceptable standard exists against which those who call themselves climate-smart are actually acting smart. Until those certifications are created and met, skeptics are concerned that big businesses will just continue to use the name to greenwash their organizations—or provide a false sense of environmental stewardship.[23] CSA can be seen as a meaningless label that is applicable to virtually anything, and this is deliberate as it is meant to conceal the social, political and environmental implications of the different technology choices.
In 2014 The Guardian reported that climate-smart agriculture had been criticized as a form of greenwashing.[24]
Contradictions surrounding practical value of CSA among consumers and suppliers may be the reason why the European Union is lagging with CSA implementation compared to other areas of the world.[25]