Sonja J. Vermeulen

Sustainable Intensification in Agriculture: Premises and Policies

Clearer understanding is needed of the premises underlying SI and how it relates to food-system priorities. Food security is high on the global policy agenda. Demand for food is increasing as populations grow and gain wealth to purchase more varied and resource-intensive diets. There is increased competition for land, water, energy, and other inputs into food production. Climate change poses challenges to agriculture, particularly in developing countries (1), and many current farming practices damage the environment and are a major source of greenhouse gases (GHG). In an increasingly globalized world, food insecurity in one region can have widespread political and economic ramifications (2).

Brazil, Ethiopia, and New Zealand lead the way on climate-smart agriculture

As countries around the world face urgent agricultural challenges, the concept of ‘climate-smart’ agriculture (CSA) has been put forward to achieve climate change adaptation, mitigation, and food security synergistically. A new report explores how three countries are using integrated policy approaches to CSA and offers insights for how other countries can build CSA into their policy mix. Brazil has invested in research to support sustainable intensification while creating legal and enforcement mechanisms to protect forest areas as a response to unrestrained agricultural expansion driven by market demand. Ethiopia initiated innovative participatory watershed development programs, in partnership with numerous international institutions, which helped smallholder farmers to rehabilitate marginal land and break out of a poverty cycle. New Zealand has removed agricultural subsidies while partnering on research and development with the private sector as a way to ensure efficiency and resilience in an agricultural sector influenced by climate change and international trade dynamics. To assemble an integrated set of national policies that fosters CSA, governments will need context-specific assessments, strong multi-stakeholder institutions, coordination frameworks, and multi-scale information systems. Governments can select from an array of policy instruments ranging from regulatory mechanisms and economic incentives to public investments and educational campaigns. Many existing national policy goals and public programs designed to increase agricultural production, improve livelihoods, and reduce environmental risks can become important pillars of a national CSA strategy. Countries have obvious interests in fostering an agriculture sector that is climate-resilient, provides national needs for food, fiber, and fuel, and supports farm livelihoods. However, the incentives for national-level action toward reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) levels are less clear in the absence of serious and shared international commitment. Integrated national CSA policies will be encouraged by clear, consistent signals from multilateral agencies, global donors, and international conventions and trade agreements that promote agriculture as a pathway for poverty reduction and food security.

Transformation in Practice: A Review of Empirical Cases of Transformational Adaptation in Agriculture Under Climate Change

Incremental adaptation may be inadequate to deal with rapid shifts and tipping points for food production under climate change. The concepts of transformative and transformational adaptation have emerged in recent years to address the need for major, non-marginal transitions in sectors such as agriculture in response to climate change. However there is less empirical evidence of transformation in practice. Here we use a simple semi-quantitative definition to identify recorded cases of transformational adaptation in response to climate change. A structured search of academic literature found 23 empirical case studies that meet our criteria for transformation of agriculture under climate change: a response to climate risks along with a redistribution of at least a third in the primary factors of production (land, labour, capital) or the outputs and outcomes of production over a time period of 25 years or less. The case studies offer experience-based lessons on managing transformative processes in agriculture at all four stages of the adaptation cycle: understanding goals and objectives, developing a vision and pathway, implementing adaptation actions, and monitoring, evaluating and learning. In general, the case-study processes of transformation have diverged from well-managed, inclusive approaches based on foresight and continual learning. Our review provides little early evidence that transformative adaptation processes in response to climate change have generated more resilient agricultural systems or improvements in governance. Governments and development partners could improve the effectiveness of outcomes through providing more comprehensive and long-term approaches to adaptation planning alongside financial and technical assistance, within a framework that rewards farms as multi-functional systems.