Agriculture

© FAO/19655/G. Bizzarri© FAO/19655/G. Bizzarri

Agriculture is a source of climate change but also a solution to climate change if adequate sustainable production measures are adopted that hold substantial mitigation potential, and that contribute to adapt agriculture and food production systems to extreme events, raising temperatures, and increasing CO2 concentration. 

To adapt to climate change farmers will need to broaden their crop genetic base and use new cultivars and crop varieties. They will need to adopt sustainable agronomic practices such as shift in sowing/planting dates, use of cover crop, live mulch and efficient management of irrigation and reduce the vulnerability of soil based agricultural production systems through the management of soil fertility, reduced tillage practices and management of the cycle of soil organic carbon more efficiently in grasslands and cropping systems. There will be a need to monitor pathogens, vectors and pests and assessing how well natural population control is working.


Activities

  • FAO assists member countries to create opportunities that enable farmers to benefit from climate change adaptation and to contribute to mitigation by empowering land users to make decisions on better practices to preserve their agroecosystems. This includes technology transfer, capacity building and policy advice.
  • FAO continues to develop specific projects, contributes to developing and collecting unique datasets promoting adaptation and mitigation practices, and provides a forum for technical discussions and policy advice related to adaptation and mitigation practices in crop land and grassland.

Key Links from FAO and partners

Contact

Page content: Caterina.Batello@fao.org (AGPC)
Plant Production and Protection Division: AGP-Director@fao.org

Publications

FAO. 2009. Low Greenhouse Gas Agriculture. Mitigation and adaptation potential of sustainable farming systems. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai781e/ai781e00.pdf.)
FAO. 2009. SEED SECURITY FOR FOOD SECURITY IN THE LIGHT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOARING FOOD PRICES:CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES. Rome, FAO. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/016/k4275e.pdf.)
Francesco N. Tubiello, Atiqur Rahman, Wendy Mann, Joseph Schmidhuber, Marieta Koleva, Alexander Müller. 2009. Carbon financial mechanisms for agriculture and rural development: challenges and opportunities along the Bali Roadmap. An editorial essay.. In Climate Change, ( June 2009), (available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/55646t9771417567/.)
FAO. 2008. Climate Change and Food Security in Pacific Island Countries. Rome, FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/climatechange/media/17003/0/0/.)
FAO. 2008. Climate change adaptation and mitigation: challenges and opportunities in the food sector . High Level Conference on World Food Security - Information Paper HLC/08/INF/2. report. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/013/k2545e.pdf.)
FAO. 2008. Climate change: Implications for food safety. (available at http://www.fao.org/ag/AGN/agns/files/HLC1_Climate_Change_and_Food_Safety.pdf.)
FAO. 2008. Climate-related transboundary pests and diseases. High Level Conference on World Food Security - Background Paper HLC/08/BAK/4. FAO. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/013/ai785e.pdf.)
FAO. 2008. Community Based adaptation in Action, A Case Study from Bangladesh, Project Summary Report (Phase I), Improved Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change for Sustainable Livelihood in the Agricultural Sector. Rome, FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/i0481e/i0481e00.htm.)
FAO. 2008. Scoping agriculture - wetland interactions. Towards a sustainable multiple-response strategy.. Rome, FAO. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0314e/i0314e.pdf.)
FAO. 2008. The State of Food and Agriculture 2008: Biofuels - prospects, risks and opportunities. FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0100e/i0100e00.htm.)
FAO. 2008. The genetic improvement of forage grasses and legumes to enhace adaptation of grasslands in climate change. Rome, FAO. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai779e/ai779e00.pdf.)
FAO Regional Office for the Near East. 2008. A Review of Drought Occurrence and Monitoring and Planning Activities in the Near East Region. (available at http://www.fao.org/world/Regional/RNE/morelinks/climate/Drought%20Report%202008%20-%20FAO%20RNE.pdf.)
FAO Regional Office for the Near East. 2008. The Near East Drought Planning Manual: Guidelines for Drought Mitigation and Preparedness Planning. FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/world/Regional/RNE/morelinks/climate/Drought%20Planning%20Guide%202008%20-%20FAO%20RNE.pdf.)
FAO/CILSS/OECD. 2008. Climate and climate change in West Africa. (available at http://www.fao.org/nr/clim/abst/clim_080502_en.htm.)
FAO/IFPRI. 2008. Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition.. (available at http://www.fao.org/ag/AGN/agns/files/HLC2_Food_Safety_Bioenergy_Climate_Change.pdf.)
IIED/University of Greenwich/FAO. 2008. Climate change and land tenure. The implications of climate change for land tenure and land policy.. FAO. Land tenure working paper 2. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/aj332e/aj332e00.pdf.)
SWAC/OECD, FAO. 2008. Strategic note on "Climate, climate change and agropastoral practices in the Sahel region". FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/nr/clim/abst/clim_080901_en.htm.)
FAO. 2007. Remediation of Arsenic for Agriculture Sustainability, Food Security and Health in Bangladesh.. In FAOWater Working Paper, (available at http://www.fao.org/nr/water/docs/FAOWATER_ARSENIC.pdf.)
FAO. 2007. The Genetic improvement of forage grasses and legumes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rome, FAO. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai780e/ai780e00.pdf.)
FAO. 2006. A conceptual framework for analyzing the links between poverty reduction and payments for environmental services. Rome, ESA working paper 06-15. (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/ah633e/ah633e00.pdf.)
FAO. 2006. World agriculture: towards 2030/2050. An FAO perspective. FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0607e/a0607e00.htm.)
FAO. 2005. Rising Atmospheric CO2 and Global Climate Change: Responses and Management Implication for Grazing Lands. In Grasslands:Developments Opportunities Perspectives, Rome, FAO and Science Publishers. (available at http://www.fao.org/icatalog/search/dett.asp?aries_id=106882&ch_lang=en.)
FAO. 2004. Carbon Sequestration in dryland soil. In World Soil Resources Reports 102, Rome, FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5738e/y5738e0d.htm.)
FAO. 2004. Global Climate Changes and Rice Food Security. Rome, FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/climatechange/media/15526/0/0/.)
FAO. 2003. Assessing the impact of transactions costs on carbon market participation with empirical evidence from Indonesia.. Rome, ESA Working Paper No. 03-06. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ae039e/ae039e00.htm.)
FAO. 2003. World agriculture: towards 2015/2030. An FAO perspective. FAO.
FAO & IIASA. 2002. Global Agro-Ecological Assessment for Agriculture in the 21st Century. Rome, FAO, IIASA. (available at http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/SAEZ/index.html.)
FAO. 2001. Soil Carbon Sequestration for improved land management. In World Soil Resources Report, 96, (available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/agl/agll/docs/wsrr96e.pdf.)
FAO. 2000. Two Essays: Measuring the effect of climate change on developing country agriculture and the Clean Development Mechanism. Rome, FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x8044e/x8044e00.htm.)
FAO & IIASA. 2000. Global Agro-Ecological Zones (Global-AEZ). Rome, IIASA & Fao. (available at http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/gaez/index.htm.)
FAO. 1996. Global Climate Change and Agricultural Production. Direct and Indirect Effects of Changing Hydrological, Pedological and Plant Physiological Process. Great Britain, FAO. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/W5183E/w5183e00.HTM#Contents.)
FAO. Global Review of good agricultural extension and advisory services practices. (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0261e/i0261e00.htm.)
last updated: Tuesday, September 22, 2009