Farming and climate change

March 22 is National Ag Day, an event that raises awareness about agriculture’s role in communities across the country. This year’s theme is Growing a Climate for Tomorrow, which recognizes the effects of climate change on farming while accepting the industry’s responsibility to reduce its impact on the environment.

Climate-smart agriculture
Climate-smart agriculture involves using sustainable farming practices to overcome specific climate-change challenges such as droughts and floods. There are three pillars of climate-smart agriculture:

• Improve farmer productivity and livelihoods
• Make farms more resilient to the impacts of climate change
• Curb greenhouse gas emissions associated with growing food

Implementing climate-smart farming
There are a number of ways farms can apply climate-smart practices:

• Water conservation. Growing food uses up to 70 percent of the world’s freshwater. To avoid water shortages, farming communities need to start conserving water and harvesting rainfall by building retention ponds and salvaging rainwater from rooftops. Farms also need to use more efficient, slow-drip irrigation systems.

• Soil management. Heavy rains and flooding can wash away fertile topsoil. Planting groundcover and trees, adding mulch to soil and building trenches and drainage systems can help keep soil in place.

• Plant trees. Trees have many benefits for crop production. They provide shade during droughts, and their roots prevent soil erosion during floods. Tree fences trap winter snow, which improves soil moisture in spring.

Climate-smart agriculture helps conserve soil and water, but it also improves yields and increases food production, which will be needed to feed a global population expected to increase to 9.8 billion by 2050.