What is the role of agriculture in mitigating climate change and modern agricultural practices helpful in reducing crop loss due to climate change?

Agriculture, the process of growing crops, is a greater source of C sink. Thus, agriculture positively contributes to mitigating climate change.

However, the way we modify the ecosystem can lead to aggravating climate change. For example, excessive or improper methods of fertilizer application, especially N fertilizers, lead to loss resulting in greater GHG (nitrous oxide) emissions. Another practice that leads to increased emissions are through indiscriminate tillage practices. The C locked in the soil organic matter gets released contributing to increased carbon dioxide concentrations.

Not to forget the ruminants causing an increase in methane concentration apart from the lowland paddy cultivation.

There are several ways by which we can mitigate these emissions. I am listing just two simple strategies, below.

1. N loss can be mitigated by using coated urea fertilizers, applying them at the right time when the demand of the crop is the highest and in appropriate amounts.

2. Following conservation agriculture practices, soil organic C emissions can be mitigated. Thus, by these two agro-techniques we can earn C credits, as well.

Although agriculture is a C sink, by the simple logic of photosynthesis taking place; modern agriculture is being blamed for aggravating climate change due to emissions of C and greenhouse gases. See the paper of Lynch et al. (2021). The link is given below:

Dr Desouza Blaise thank you for your contribution to the discussion

Activities that improve soil, plant, and animal health can improve resilience to climate change. Regenerative agriculture practices such as no-till cultivation, not burning stubbles, and planting cover crops, can ensure that plants and soil are in the best condition to tolerate drought and erratic rainfall. However, by implementing smart agriculture technologies and effective climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) approach, we can mitigate the impact of climate change on agriculture in India. Agricultural adaptation strategies to climate change take a wide range of forms that include: planting drought-tolerant crops, early planting, crop diversification, rainwater harvesting, market responses, such as income diversification and credit schemes, developing meteorological forecasting capability. Several adaptation strategies such as heat- and water stress-tolerant crop varieties, stress-tolerant new crops, improved agronomic management practices, improved water use efficiency, conservation agriculture practices and improved pest management, improved weather forecasts, and other climate services are in place to place. Changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels. These include technologies like solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal power. Switch to sustainable transport. Petrol and diesel vehicles, planes and ships use fossil fuels. There is no 'one-size-fits-all-solution' adaptation can range from building flood defenses, setting up early warning systems for cyclones, switching to drought-resistant crops, to redesigning communication systems, business operations and government policies. Alternative energy using alternative energy such as solar, wind or tidal can reduce the use of fossil fuels. This will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Agriculture lags behind other sectors in terms of climate commitments and actions. Yet it can become an important part of the overall mitigation solution by reducing GHG emissions and removing CO2 from the atmosphere by sequestering carbon. No-till agriculture prevents soil erosion and promotes carbon sequestration, which is beneficial regarding climate change and farming. Mitigation reducing climate change involves reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, either by reducing sources of these gases or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and store these gases. Climate change can affect agriculture in a variety of ways. Beyond a certain range of temperatures, warming tends to reduce yields because crops speed through their development, producing less grain in the process. And higher temperatures also interfere with the ability of plants to get and use moisture. Changes in climate can be expected to have significant impacts on crop yields through changes in temperature and water availability. The purpose of mitigation and adaptation measures is therefore to attempt a gradual reversal of the effects caused by climate change and sustain development. Mitigation options for land management include reducing the amount of carbon emissions by storing or sequestering additional carbon, providing renewable energy from biomass, or avoiding carbon losses. Many land and animal management technologies and practices can help reduce GHG emissions. Agriculture mitigation practices, such as crop and grazing land management, agroforestry and restoring cultivated organic soils generate high co-benefits for the smallholders, such as raise in productivity, household food security, and increased resilience and ecosystem services.

Hi,

We may reduce Crop loss by monitoring the underground water pipeline leakage.

please take a look on my paper entitled "A Novel Technique for Detecting Underground Water Pipeline Leakage Using the Internet of Things" published in Journal of Universal Computer Science.

It is published online: https://lib.jucs.org/article/96377/list/18/

Hope this can help.

Regards,

Ahmad Abusukhon

Dr Ahmad Abusukhon thank you for your contribution to the discussion

Agriculture lags behind other sectors in terms of climate commitments and actions. Yet it can become an important part of the overall mitigation solution by reducing GHG emissions and removing CO2 from the atmosphere by sequestering carbon. Activities that improve soil, plant, and animal health can improve resilience to climate change. Regenerative agriculture practices such as no-till cultivation, not burning stubbles, and planting cover crops, can ensure that plants and soil are in the best condition to tolerate drought and erratic rainfall. Agricultural adaptation strategies to climate change take a wide range of forms that include: planting drought-tolerant crops, early planting, crop diversification, rainwater harvesting, market responses, such as income diversification and credit schemes, developing meteorological forecasting capability, and improving. The effects of climate change on agriculture can result in lower crop yields and nutritional quality due to drought, heat waves and flooding as well as increases in pests and plant diseases. Climate change impacts are making it harder for agricultural activities to meet human needs. Several adaptation strategies such as heat- and water stress-tolerant crop varieties, stress-tolerant new crops, improved agronomic management practices, improved water use efficiency, conservation agriculture practices and improved pest management, improved weather forecasts, and other climate services are in place to place. There is no 'one-size-fits-all-solution' adaptation can range from building flood defenses, setting up early warning systems for cyclones, switching to drought-resistant crops, to redesigning communication systems, business operations and government policies. Transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy is the key to winning the fight against climate change. Here are the most common sources of renewable energy and one source of decidedly nonrenewable energy that often gets included (falsely) in the list. Mitigation reducing climate change involves reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, either by reducing sources of these gases as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, or transport or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and store these gases. Agriculture plays a substantial role in climate change. Some herds, crops, and fertilizers can generate substantial amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, and agriculture is also a major cause of deforestation and used long-distance transportation, which involves burning fossil fuels.

Attached is a BOOK REVIEW by Ghislain de Marsily (Académie des Sciences, Paris) devoted to the fundamental Water-Food Nexus in the Arid Region taking Tunisia as an example. "National water security– Case study of an arid country, Tunisia (Authors: Besbes, Chahed Hamdane), Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration (2019) 4:11". The Previous French version of the book is available in chapters on:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356650449_Securite_Hydrique_de_la_Tunisie_Preface_Introduction https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356662490_Les_Problemes_de_l'Eau_dans_le_Monde

This is a short review of a book recently published by Springer entitled: National water security–Case study of an arid country, Tunisia; by Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, and Abdelkader Hamdane. It shows that around 40% of the water consumed in Tunisia is imported as virtual water, used in other countries to produce goods. Water security is thus strongly linked to food security, but includes protection of the resource from pollution, accidents, malicious acts, and anticipation of extreme hydrologic events. A detailed analysis is made of water consumed by agriculture for food production by both rain-fed and irrigated crops, from which a surprising conclusion can be drawn: the major part of Tunisian food production is provided by rain-fed agriculture. Therefore, optimizing the yield of rain-fed agriculture becomes a priority. Alternative water resources are also discussed, as well as water governance. Results can be integrated into the policy choices related to sustainable water management which should be made in the future in Tunisia, and other regions where water is scarce.