Climate-smart crop production: understanding complexity for achieving triple-wins

Publication date: 27/04/2020
Extent: 44 pages

Contributions by: Katrien Descheemaeker, Pytrik Reidsma and Ken E. Giller, Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands

Chapter synopsis: Climate-smart cropping options aim to simultaneously improve crop productivity, adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This chapter provides a concise overview of a wide range of climate-smart cropping options and investigates in detail the potential of conservation agriculture and soil fertility management to contribute to the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), with attention for possible trade-offs and constraints to adoption. We warn that gaps in the understanding and assessment pitfalls may lead to an overestimation of the CSA potential. Two contrasting case studies from intensive and low-input agriculture illustrate that contextualized and quantitative information can be obtained with participatory, integrated and cross-scale assessments. Such information is key to support decision and policy making towards holistic solutions that can enable a transformation to climate-smart agriculture.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2020.0064.14