Climate-smart agriculture: making agriculture climate-friendly

The objectives of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) are to be adapted to climate change and mitigate it, while sustainably contributing to food security. The concept emerged in 2010 at FAO and has now become popular. Different CSA practices can be found today and integrate its objectives differently. Agroecological practices aiming for a permanent soil cover, either with trees or crops, are among the most common CSA practices. CSA is also a wider approach allowing taking into account the challenge of climate change with innovative public policies and financing. Because it is defined by its objectives and not by the means to reach those objectives, the concept of CSA has also been questioned, especially regarding the possibility to reach its three objectives simultaneously and because of the risks to promote disguised productivism that would not respect the environment or the farmers. The 4% initiative << Soils for Food Security and Climate >> takes up the objectives of CSA and emphasizes the mitigation of climate change by increasing the carbon content of the soil. While the CSA concept has yet to prove itself, it is an innovative, climate-friendly approach to agriculture that is compatible with the challenges of climate change.