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Abstract
Background: Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) addresses the challenge of meeting the growing demand for food, fibre and fuel, despite the changing climate and fewer opportunities for agricultural expansion on additional lands. CSA focuses on contributing to economic development, poverty reduction and food security; maintaining and enhancing the productivity and resilience of natural and agricultural ecosystem functions, thus building natural capital; and reducing trade-offs involved in meeting these goals. Current gaps in knowledge, work within CSA, and agendas for interdisciplinary research and science-based actions identified at the 2013 Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture (Davis, CA, USA) are described here within three themes: (1) farm and food systems, (2) landscape and regional issues and (3) institutional and policy aspects. The first two themes comprise crop physiology and genetics, mitigation and adaptation for livestock and agriculture, barriers to adoption of CSA practices, climate risk management and energy and biofuels (theme 1); and modelling adaptation and uncertainty, achieving multifunctionality, food and fishery systems, forest biodiversity and ecosystem services, rural migration from climate change and metrics (theme 2). Theme 3 comprises designing research that bridges disciplines, integrating stakeholder input to directly link science, action and governance. Outcomes: In addition to interdisciplinary research among these themes, imperatives include developing (1) models that include adaptation and transformation at either the farm or landscape level; (2) capacity approaches to examine multifunctional solutions for agronomic, ecological and socioeconomic challenges; (3) scenarios that are validated by direct evidence and metrics to support behaviours that foster resilience and natural capital; (4) reductions in the risk that can present formidable barriers for farmers during adoption of new technology and practices; and (5) an understanding of how climate affects the rural labour force, land tenure and cultural integrity, and thus the stability of food production. Effective work in CSA will involve stakeholders, address governance issues, examine uncertainties, incorporate social benefits with technological change, and establish climate finance within a green development framework. Here, the socioecological approach is intended to reduce development controversies associated with CSA and to identify technologies, policies and approaches leading to sustainable food production and consumption patterns in a changing climate.
Highlights
Agricultural and forestry systems are expected to change significantly in response to future climate change, manifesting as major transitions in livelihoods and landscapes [1,2,3,4]
We summarize and synthesize the discussions and ideas presented at the 2013 Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) conference by an international community of scientists, growers, policymakers, research scientists, government officials, nonprofit entities and students who are working to achieve food security, poverty reduction, mitigation and adaptation within the CSA context
We provide a summary of the 12 sessions and highlights of the oral presentations by subject experts, and we conclude with recommendations offered during discussions as well as a consensus agenda for future actions [50]
Summary
Agricultural and forestry systems are expected to change significantly in response to future climate change, manifesting as major transitions in livelihoods and landscapes [1,2,3,4]. Careful selection of crop rotations to reduce nutrient loss, and improved soil organic matter content are means by which to promote sustainable intensification This often involves a set of complex trade-offs for producers and their livelihoods [114], emphasizing the need for a CSA strategy that involves stakeholders from the beginning to develop viable scenarios that include both mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Systems that effectively leverage science and technology in support of sustainability efforts create salience, credibility and legitimacy across boundaries where boundaries exist between science and policy, disciplines, public and private sectors, and/or organizational hierarchies Actions employed within these systems include convening (bringing all stakeholders in the CSA context together to foster communication and build trust), translation (defining a shared ontology and language), collaboration (actors working together to produce applied knowledge and specific outcomes, with specific mechanisms in place to facilitate interactions across multiple boundaries) and mediation. Coordinated action resulting from CSA and green economy research realizes the improvement of livelihoods and food security through mitigation and adaptation to climate change and creates cobenefits for ecosystem services and sustainable use of natural capital and enables evaluation of a broader set of trade-offs associated with a certain course of action
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