Climate Smart Agriculture: Opportunities and Stumbling blocks

Maurits van den Berg

Institute for Environment and SustainabilityJoint Research Centre

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Overview• Context: What are we talking about

• Farm management practices associated with CSA

• Effects (advantages and

disadvantages)• Interrelations

• Adoption of CSA

• Enabling policies

• Take-home messages

What are we talking about?

The three pillars of climate smart agriculture:

• Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes

• Adapting and building resilience to climate change

• Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases emissions, where possible

(FAO, 2013)

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Global population billion

Non-OECDOECD

Animal productsOther cropsOil cropsCereals

Food consumption per capita kcal per capita per day

(Source: PBL, 2010)

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Agricultural land use in 2000

Project land use change (business as usual scenario)

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Agricultural land use in 2050, business as usual scenario

(Source: van den Berg et al., 2011)

Adapting and building resilience to climate change

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Trend, change in temperature (°C, 1901 to 2012)

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Change in average precipitation (1986-2005 to 2081-2100)in two distinct emission scenarios

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(Source: EDGAR dabase, courtesy G. Maenhout-Janssens, JRC; LULUCF: IMAGE Calculations)

Agriculture

Climate smart agriculture

To sustain the three pillars:

• Increase in crop yields and animal feed use efficiency

• Minimise conversion of (semi-)natural land to arable land

• Improve/sustain soil health and biodiversity to adapt and build resilience to climate change

• Efficient use of inputs (water, fertilizers, agrichemicals)

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Examples of measures• Adapted/more productive/resilient crop varieties or animal breeds

• Adapted crop calendar

• Crop rotation / Intercropping (especially with N-fixing crops)

• Minimum soil disturbance (e.g. no till or minimum tillage)

• Crop residues left on the land

• Semi-natural vegetation intertwined with cropland

• Better irrigation practices

• Smarter use of chemicals (only when needed, at the right place and the

right time; biological pest control when possible)

• Rehabilitation of degraded land

• Improved animal husbandry

• Better integration of animal manure in crop production

• Minimise harvest and post harvest losses 11

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Example 1: Conservation agriculture

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Example 1: Conservation agriculture• Crop rotation (e.g. soybean - wheat)

• Minimum soil disturbance (direct drilling, no-till)

• Crop residues left on the land after harvest

Advantages:

• High yield potential thanks to improved soil-health and water conservation

• Less need of fertilisers

• Higher C-storage in the soil

• less CO2 from field machinery use

• Less labour requirements

Stumbling blocks:

• Crop residues left on the land cannot be used for other purposes

• No-till can pose difficulty to crop emergence (esp. during transition phase)

• New pest/diseases may appear (esp. during transition phase)

• Weed infestations

• Lack of local knowledge farmers, suppliers, extension officers

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Example 2: Intertwine semi-natural vegetation with cropland

vs

Example 2: Intertwine semi-natural vegetation with cropland• A coherent network of semi-natural features (hedgerows, buffer strips, flower strips,

woodlots, semi-natural grasslands etc.) in agricultural areas

Advantages:

• provides corridors for species migration,

• Pollination

• Bioogical pest control

• Erosion control

• Opportunities for supplementary income (e.g honey, agritourism)

Stumbling blocks & drawbacks:

• Loss of crop land area

• Implementation costs

• Use of heavy field machinery restricted

• New pest/diseases may appear (esp. during transition phase)

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Example 3: Better irrigation practices

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Source: van den Berg et al., 2011

Example 3: Better irrigation practices• Reduce losses from reservoirs and channels

• Efficient, properly maintained equipment (e.g. drip, central pivot, short furrow)

• Improved irrigation scheduling

Advantages:

• Higher yields can be obtained with same amount of water

• Less negative off-site effects

• More efficient nutrient use

• Energy savings (from pumps)

Stumbling blocks:

• Initial investments at farm and catchment level

• Only works if water is valued

• Lack of knowledge / awareness

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Deficit irrigation: substantial amounts of irrigation water can be saved with minor yield penalty

Full irrigation Deficit irrigation

Source: JRC (CAPRESE project)

Irrigation water requirements:

Example 3: Better irrigation practices• Reduce losses from reservoirs and channels

• Efficient, properly maintained equipment (e.g. drip, central pivot, short furrow)

• Improved irrigation scheduling

Advantages:

• Higher yields can be obtained with same amount of water

• Less negative off-site effects

• More efficient nutrient use

• Energy savings (from pumps)

Stumbling blocks:

• Initial investments at farm and catchment level

• Only works if water is valued

• Lack of knowledge / awareness

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Common features• Fairly simple measures (more sophisticated measures also exist)

• Approaches can be applied to many environments, but local adaptation is required

• Measures tend to enhance each other (synergy)

• Drawbacks tend to be strong during initial phase

• Action required at farm and higher levels

• Costs tend to be concentrated on farmers, benefits for society as a whole

• Policies are required to overcome drawbacks

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Enabling conditions for adoption• Prices of produce and inputs are fair and fairly predictable

• Markets are reliable

• Land tenure is secure

• Credit to invest in long-term land productivity is available and accessible

• Training opportunities

• Trust that adoption will improve stakeholders’ livelihoods

• Low yield risk; or technologies/insurance mechanisms are available to cope with risks

• Incentives exist to safeguard public goods and services

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Climate risk management – Need for innovative financing mechanisms

• Agricultural insurance as means to reduce risk;

• Traditional insurance schemes are not fit for climate-related risk;

• Weather index-based insurance schemes provide interesting alternative;

• Many pilots in developing countries

• Additional benefit: Farmers are exposed to intensive and better use of climate information in the decision making process;

DOI: 10.2788/713

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The 3 measures are: Maintaining permanent grassland (National, or Regional, or farm)

Annual decrease of “Area grassland/total agriculture area” < 5%

Crop diversification (farm level)At least 2 crops when arable land > 10 haAt least 3 crops when arable land > 30 ha

Main crop cover < 75% of arable land, two main crops < 95% of the arable land

Ecological focus areas of at least 5% of the arable area of the holding (farms with area >15 hectares)

EFA: field margins, hedges, trees, fallow land, landscape features, biotopes, buffer strips, afforested area

This figure will rise to 7% after 2019 (after impact assessment in 2017)

NB: Organic farms, some Agri-environment schemes already compliant

CAP Direct Payments (Greening)

Take-home messages• Implementation of climate smart agriculture is an issue of today

• Suitable approaches are available; many are based on simple technologies

• Climate smart agricultural practices tend to be synergistic. Synergism cannot be taken for granted.

• Diverse pathways of climate smart agricultural development; no one-size-fits-all solutions.

• Common stumbling blocks to adoption:

Initial investments and practical difficulties during transitional period

Costs mainly faced by farmers; benefits shared among wider community

Difficulty to achieve concerted action at several organisational levels

Minimum set of enabling conditions is often not in place

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www.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Serving societyStimulating innovationSupporting legislation

Thank you for your attention!Acknowledgements:Frank DentenerFrançois KayitakireNeil HubbardHervé KerdilesGreet MaenhoutJean Michel TerresMaria Luisa ParacchiniAndrej Ceglar

www.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Serving societyStimulating innovationSupporting legislation

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Reserve list

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Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity

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Detection of semi-natural vegetation in agricultural areas at the European scale and its impact on ecosystem services C. García-Feced, C.J. Weissteiner, A. Baraldi, M.L. Paracchini, J. Maes, G. Zulian In preparation

Example 2: Intertwine semi-natural vegetation with cropland

Wheat – best adaptation (%)

Source: JRC, PESETA II Project

Wheat – best adaptation (%)

Source: JRC, PESETA II Project

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Irrigation water requirement

Relative difference in maize productivity

Analysis of different irrigation strategies for growing maize in Europe

CAPRESE project impact of different irrigation strategies

Source: van den Berg et al., 2011

Source: van den Berg et al., 2011

Source: van den Berg et al., 2011