Nishan kafle
(IAAS)paklihawa
Agriculture is a major economic driver in the country of Nepal. Approximately 75% of the country’s employment and 25% of its gross domestic product comes from the agriculture sector. Farming is also vulnerable to extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, erosion, and hot and cold waves that are becoming more common with climate change.
Climate-smart agriculture involves farming practices that improve farm productivity and profitability, help farmers adapt to the negative effects of climate change and mitigate climate change effects, e.g. by soil carbon sequestration or reductions in greenhouse gas emissionsClimate-smart agriculture (CSA) encourages sustainable development of agricultural systems through practices and approaches that achieve improved food security, increased resilience, and low-emissions development where possible and appropriate in the face of climate change (FAO, 2010).
Climate change has been the burning issue in agriculture sector. The CSA has been adopted globally for cultivation and crop management without compromising yield and productivity. Evidence indicates that the climate in Nepal is already changing and the impacts are being felt. Rise in average temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as severe droughts and floods, and shifting agricultural seasons have been observed across the different agro-ecological zones of Nepal. In recent years, long drought spells during the monsoon and increased temperatures and unseasonal heavy rains during winter have caused serious distress to agriculture-dependent communities in many locations. A study carried out by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) revealed that the direct losses due to climate change in agriculture are equivalent to around 0.8% per year of current GDP and there will be a US$2.4 billion adaptation deficit by 2030 in three sectors including agriculture.
Agricultural sector has been affected more by the climate change in Nepal. Nepal used to be a rice exporter country in the past whereas it is one of the importers. Amidst the millennium development goals and agriculture perspective plan (APP) 1996–2015, Nepal always faced food grains deficit in more than 27 districts in the hill and high hill regions . There are many agronomical as well as horticultural crops whose yield per unit area is decreasing in comparison to the past. Agricultural lands which provided enough nutrients to the crops are also in a diminishing due to the maximum soil temperature.
Impacts of climate change in agriculture are addressed below
- Disturbance in the soil fertility due to surface runoff,landslide soil erosion along with change in intensity and pattern of rainfall.
- Change in temperature,precipitation and composition of gases has caused greater impacts on productivity of agricuture crops
- Reduction in the potential of productive land due to flood, landslide and erosion
- Burning of fuels and woods cause in the release of harmful gases like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide as well as the carbon monoxide and many other gases that are relatively proportional to the increase in the temperature of the earth surface
- Agricultural lands which provided enough nutrients to the crops are also in a diminishing due to the maximum soil temperature. Crop losses due to severe floods, extended droughts, emergence of diseases and proliferation of insect pests, all of which are closely related to the impacts of climate change, have been increasing both in coverage and frequency in recent years.
Methods of climate smart agriculture techniques:
- The ultimate goal of CSA is sustainable increase in agriculture productivity and income , adapting and building resilience to climate change and removing or reducing green house gass emission
- CSA involves use using resilient varieties ,water management, zero tillage,legumes incorporation,cover cropping,site specific fertilizer management, variation in planting date
- CSA program should be targeted to vulnerable social group (women and youth) by making information and resources available and accessible to them. CSA not only enhance crop productivity but also minimize work load or labour effort.
- Most CSA practices identified challenges to the agricultural sector, such as water stress, soil erosion and reduced soil fertility, and higher incidences of pests and diseases due to climate change. These practices include: precision nutrient management in cereals and rice (using leaf color charts or green seekers, and improving the timing, placement, rate and source of fertilizer application), improved water and irrigation management for rice, vegetables, potato and sugar cane (using wastewater collection and rainwater harvesting techniques, or implementing efficient irrigation such as ridge and furrows in potatoes, solar-based irrigation in rice, or micro-irrigation in vegetables), soil conservation techniques such as zerotillage sowing and conservation agriculture in wheat, maize, lentils and mustard, or even ratoon management for minimum soil disturbance in sugarcane.
- Crop intensification techniques (legume intercropping or mixed cropping in cereals, sugarcane or lentils) are also common. Traditional crop rotation systems, such as ricewheat in the Terai region, or maize-millet in the hill region, are sometimes further complemented by adding leguminous intercrops (such as mungbean catch-cropping between rice and wheat), which helps increase the system’s overall productivity by allowing the cultivation of an additional crop, maintaining continuous soil cover, increasing soil organic matter, and replenishing soil nitrogen content.
- Other techniques include improved planting and management of crops via integration of beekeeping for supplementary pollination, integrated pest management (for late blight and red ant in potato), or use of droughttolerant and high-yielding varieties (lentil).
- Livestock practices mostly address challenges related to fodder shortages and farm yard manure (FYM) management. Cattle, buffalo and goats (for meat and dairy) are particularly vulnerable to climate change in the mid-hill and higher mountain ranges, where increased water stress, temperature abnormalities and reduced fodder availability render livestock production challenging. Therefore, CSA practices for dairy and goat focus on the adoption of good husbandry practices such as: improved feed and fodder management via increased production, processing and storage of fodder crops (e.g. through agro-forestry); shift to total or partial stall feeding to improve manure and nutrient management, increase productivity and reduce/reverse deforestations, and promotion of stress-tolerant breeds by use of artificial insemination.
- improved capacity of local institutions for planning, accessing funds and implementing climate change adaptation actions are important enablers of innovation. Building institutions at community level, such as community seed banks, can support communities in identifying, testing and adopting new CSA practices.
Climate smart strategies like choice of suitable crops and cultivars ,integrated farming system ,nutrient management ,intercropping with legumes,agroforestry, crop diversification can help minimize negative impacts and strengthen farmers by sustainable increase in productivity and income.Thus to mitigate the climate change and food security we need such smart agriculture practices which are sustainable,economic and environmently friendly .
