Page 16 - FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change

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Theme 3.
Climate mitigation in agriculture and other land uses and linkages to food security
We need a better understanding of the links and causality between climate events and human activities and their effects on land quality/productivity and ecosystem diversity.
We need greater understanding of the human drivers behind desertification and land degradation, including human-land-water interaction.
KEY MESSAGES
Agriculture’s share of GHG emissions is large and given the expected increases in food production needed up to the 2050s, a large amount of mitigation from agriculture will be needed.
The priorities in reducing GHG emissions should focus on options that offer synergy to make food systems more efficient and also contribute to economic development and resilience. The latter is enhanced by augmenting economic efficiency (focus on short-term yields and profits, N-use efficiency) with risk management over the long haul.
We need greater efforts to address emissions along the food value chain pre- and post-harvest and to explore the mitigation options associated with food waste as well as with food transport, storage, processing and packaging.
We need to promote the use of biological nitrogen fertilizer in all farms of all sizes worldwide, particularly those growing legumes as it will lead to partial or total replacement of mineral nitrogen fertilizer, a major source of nitrous oxide emission.
The growing demand for fish means we should assess the emissions and mitigation options for aquaculture and mangrove conversion to aquaculture.
Mitigation policies should consider all four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization and stability.
When tackling climate mitigation and food security, it is important to separate ruminant and monogastric and extensive and intensive livestock systems and to seek diet improvement in ruminants to reduce GHG emission intensity per kg product, while avoiding negative food security consequences (e.g., from feeding cereals to ruminants).
We need to review and explore opportunities for carbon investment from communal rangelands that will contribute to low carbon and food security and to propose measures that reduce impacts of climate change on rangeland ecosystems.
There has been too much focus on biophysical and agronomic solutions and practices and not enough socio- economic analyses to remove constraints for adoption of improved technologies. Progress in enhancing adoption of “proven” mitigation technologies by farmers requires integrated and multidisciplinary analyses with full engagement of stakeholders, especially smallholder farmers
KNOWLEDGE GAPS
Spatial analysis of the feasibility of mitigation measures in the agricultural sector should take full account of the rural landscape where they are applied and allow compensation for GHG emissions at landscape level. It should also examine ways to achieve better resolution of priority efforts for mitigation.
FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change, land use and food security