3 Strategies to Implement to Climate-smart Agriculture Practices
Climate resilience is one of the most important prerequisites for the agriculture industry today. Ensuing the implementation of climate-smart farming practices has emerged as a crucial strategy for agribusinesses to win while the world is witnessing harmful impacts of climate change and uncertain weather patterns. Here is how farm management technology can simplify the incorporation of climate-smart agriculture practices and enable farmers to amplify their potential for profits in the digital world.
Climate change is one of the major concerns today having long-lasting and potentially detrimental consequences on the agriculture sector. The changing precipitation patterns, carbon dioxide levels, and rising sea levels are leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. All these changes are causing perturbations across agricultural ecosystems and having a profound impact on farm productivity. Adopting the climate-smart agriculture approach has thus, become inevitable in order to build resilience in agriculture systems and cope better with climate change.
Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change as it threatens to undermine consistent temperature ranges and water availability, which agriculture is highly dependent on. However, a climate-smart agriculture approach can be crucial in transforming and reorienting agricultural development under the new realities of climate change. It is a sustainable agriculture approach that proactively incorporates resilience concerns, ensures water conservation, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Here are 3 farm management strategies that employ climate-smart methods to boost agricultural productivity sustainably.
1. Tackling Climate Change with Sustainable Soil Management
With greenhouse gas emissions hitting a critical point, developing technologies to tackle the impacts and reduce the effects of GHG emissions has become crucially important. Preserving soil organic matter can help in achieving this as it contains soil carbon which enables soils to be resilient to the extreme weather events. A healthy equilibrium of minerals, organic matter, living organisms, and water will ensure that essential nutrients are provided to the crops. Better land management and agricultural practices can enhance the ability of soils to store carbon and help tackle climate change. With real-time soil testing and critical inputs on user-friendly composting techniques, farm management systems can help farmers to better adapt to the constant climate changes and successfully retain the natural health of soil.
Similarly, by capitalizing on the latest technological innovations, farm management systems can expedite the bio-composting process. This can help in enhancing the micro-nutrients and carbon content in the soil to ensure climate resilient farm production.
2. Climate-smart Water Management for Sustainable Agriculture
The major impacts of climate change on agriculture stem from its effect on the water cycle. Changing climate conditions are accelerating crop evapotranspiration, changing rainfall patterns, and are leading to greater variations in groundwater recharge.
Similarly, the drastic effects of unprecedented droughts and floods are leading to groundwater depletion and severely affecting agricultural water management. Farm management systems can keep a continuous check on the soil, weather, and crop conditions. This can help farmers in implementing smart water algorithms to accurately calculate water requirements for every plot.
Also, automated irrigation systems can help in accelerating the irrigation operations while also ensuring substantial water conservation. Thus, a good farm management system can efficiently fuel your water conservation efforts and ensure a climate-resilient future of your farms.
3. Integrated Pest Management to Cope with Rising Pest Attacks and Diseases
Pest attacks and diseases are one of the major issues amongst the myriad of farm production challenges. The dynamics of pest influx and crop diseases are changing rapidly with the extreme changes in the climate. The fluctuating temperature and humidity levels are paving the way for the spread and establishment of a wide range of insects, pests, diseases, and weeds.
Pest management is thus, growing into a major concern for the farming sector with the rising uncertainties in temperature and climate. Extended crop rotations can be a great way to counter the increasing pressures of weed and pest attacks as it promotes soil health and prevents the proliferation of pests.
An efficient farm management software analyses the farm conditions to help you choose the right crops for rotation and provides you with appropriate pest control measures. Farm management systems also provide farmers with a holistic view of the farm environment. This empowers them to manage risks better and track and plan their pest management activities efficiently, thereby keeping their farms irrepressible to climate changes.
Climate-smart Approach: Enhancing Agricultural Systems, Landscapes and Livelihoods!
The global agricultural industry is facing tremendous challenges as a result of climate change and extreme weather events. However, FarmERP, with its suite of next-generation tools and farm management technologies, is strengthening the climate change adaptation and mitigation capacities of smallholder farmers.
Our farm management platform helps farmers adjust and modify their production systems to deal with the various impacts of climate change. Through our climate-smart agricultural practices, we aspire to proactively enhance the food security efforts of farmers and build more resilient livelihoods for the next generation.