Agricultural development

Josie Teurlings

Agriculture will be one of the economic sectors most seriously hit by climate change. The sector is also responsible for about 10 to 12% of the GHG emissions, and agriculture expansion is a major cause for deforestation particularly in Africa.

At the same time agriculture production will have to grow by 70% by 2050 in order to meet the growing demand for food. This growth in agricultural production will have to be achieved in a way that contributes to reduce emission from the sector and at the same reduce the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change. The temperature increase will also be higher over the continents than the global average temperature increase. This will make it very difficult to adapt agriculture to climate change in some of the most vulnerable areas of the world such as the Sahel.

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) has recently been launched as a new concept for agricultural development. CSA aims at triple wins: increased food production, adaption to climate change and mitigation of emissions of GHG. As the agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions differ across the world, there is no “one size- fits all” solutions. In Africa the challenge is to make agriculture more productive and resilient to climate, while in Asia the main challenges are to use water more efficiently in the rice fields and reduce the emissions from agricultural production. Such changes will require major modifications in the farming systems and will require increased research investments.

Staff and PhD students working with agricultural development

Updated: 10.01.12
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