The core principles of climate-smart agriculture, which targets productivity, adaptation and emission reduction at the same time.
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a holistic approach defined by FAO that addresses food security and climate change together. It rests on three pillars:
- Productivity: Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and farmer incomes.
- Adaptation: Strengthening the resilience of farming systems against climate shocks such as droughts, floods and heatwaves.
- Mitigation: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration where possible.
Why does it matter?
Agriculture accounts for roughly one third of global greenhouse gas emissions and uses 70% of freshwater. To feed a world population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, food production must rise by 70%. This calls for solutions that increase output while conserving resources.
Which technologies?
Precision agriculture, remote sensing, smart irrigation, climate-resilient seeds and digital decision-support systems are among the key tools of climate-smart agriculture. Our association works to research, field-test and scale up these technologies.
