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Abstract
Climate smart agriculture (CSA) provides a framework for balancing multiple dimensions of agriculture and food systems in an era of climate change: addressing agricultural contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions, vulnerabilities to climate change impacts, and the relationship between agricultural productivity, incomes and food security. As the global climate agenda more thoroughly integrates the CSA framework, policy makers often search for “triple wins” – practices that can mitigate emissions, increase resilience or adaptation, and increase productivity. Agriculture and food systems however, are complex systems with many agroecological and sociopolitical interdependencies. In many cases, there are necessary tradeoffs among the three CSA objectives, as advancement in one area may negatively impact another. A major challenge to implementing CSA across multiple geographies thus lies in the coordination of policies and programs that recognize these tradeoffs and allow for prioritization or reconciliation among the three objectives when there are conflicts. This paper describes California’s adoption of CSA principles to illustrate how synergies and trade-offs are addressed in a policy framework that spans regulatory measures, incentive programs, research and technological development, that is both climate specific and arising from other simultaneous environmental and economic priorities. We provide specific examples where agriculture has benefited and where it is constrained due to the balancing of CSA objectives, and discuss how the policy environment has evolved over time in attempts to deal with the complexity of the agriculture-climate nexus. This case serves to summarize and analyze the implemented CSA initiatives in one of most productive and well-resourced agricultural regions of the world; however, lessons learned from California can serve as transferable knowledge for other regions around the globe who are currently developing CSA policies and plans. Our findings suggest that cross-sectoral collaboration, policy coordination, and inclusion of a diverse set of stakeholders are fundamental to the efficacy of CSA strategies in complex and ever-evolving environmental and sociopolitical conditions.
Highlights
As climate change impacts expand in reach and severity, global food systems face risks of reduced agricultural production, market volatility, and threats to rural livelihoods and food security (Foley et al, 2011)
To remain a global agricultural leader, California agriculture will have to continue adapting to changing climate conditions, resource availability and competitive global markets
California plays an important role in these global climate-smart agriculture (CSA) discussions, as it is a major producer of hundreds of specialty crops, exemplifies the dry climate conditions that typify numerous agricultural regions around the world, and houses major research and technology innovation sectors that support the development of many innovative CSA solutions
Summary
As climate change impacts expand in reach and severity, global food systems face risks of reduced agricultural production, market volatility, and threats to rural livelihoods and food security (Foley et al, 2011). The 2018 extension of the Cannella Environmental Farming Act (Assembly Bill 2377) requires that a portion of the SWEEP budget, as well as that of the Healthy Soils Program and Alternative Manure Management Program, be spent on technical assistance programs that serve small and mid-sized farms, as well as socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers These are important steps in California’s development of CSA policy as it represents an acknowledgment of the interconnectedness between social, political and economic systems at play that directly affect farmers’ abilities to participate and benefit from state-funded CSA efforts. Evidence of the important role of technology in meeting the challenge of regulatory, climate, and market challenges is seen in the recent investments by some grower organizations and food companies in new agtech start-ups (e.g., https:// agfundernews.com/western-growers-launches-4m-agtech-fund. html, https://www.thepacker.com/article/taylor-farms-joinsstartup-accelerator-advance-ag-tech)
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