Potential Solutions

Potential Solutions to Save the Agriculture Industry

Adaptation and Mitigation

It is necessary to form a combination of adaptation to crop production in a changing climate with mitigation strategies to reduce carbon emissions.  Details of this combination include (8):

- Investing in adaptation, to increase resilience to climate change: 

    a) technology (eg crop breeding for new climates; rural electrification)

    b) management (eg farming systems that use water more efficiently)

    c) institutions (eg market and tariff structure)

- Many adaptations can be ‘win-win’ (eg droughtproofing for present weather can increase resilience to effects of a long-term drying trend)

Examples of Adaptation

• New crop varieties: eg drought resistant (by traditional plant breeding, or genetic modification)
• Irrigation: needs rural electrification (especially in Africa= a Millenium Development Goal)
• Shift of cropping zones:  eg northwards in N. Hemisphere (but limited by soils)
• Reform global food system: [today, enough food is produced for all, but still 500m are hungry] (8)
• Shifting planting dates
• Identification of climate risk "hot spots" (13)

Mitigation Strategies

• Stabilisation at 750 ppm does not avoid most serious effects.  Stabilisation at 550 ppm does, but cost will be great (= c.20 times Kyoto reductions)
• Promote innovative low-carbon technologies
• Market transformation for energy efficiency in industry
• Invest in renewable energy technologies
• Energy efficient, low-carbon transport and urban systems
• Conservation enhancements through sustainable management of land use and forestry (9)

Starter Fertilizers

Starter fertilizers are used to increase corn yield because they increase nitrogen and phosphorus use in the plant (22).  Currently nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in cereal plants (corn, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, rye, and oat) is at 33%, meaning the unaccounted 67% represents a loss in $15.9 billion annual loss of N fertilizer (23).  Starter fertilizers help the plant absorb more nitrogen and phosphorus, especially when planting conditions are less than ideal.  

Crop yield when using starter fertilizers (22)

While using starting fertilizers is one approach to increasing crop production, it is not always 100% effective.  It is important to take a systems approach to developing solutions to increase corn production in a changing climate.  At this point, it is especially important to decrease emissions to help curb the increasing temperatures to ensure that the agriculture industry is salvageable.