Major global study charts path for climate-resilient agriculture

Around the world, research on climate change and agriculture has revealed a complex two-way relationship. Global agriculture is a major driver of climate change, extinctions, and pollution, and its influence on the environment continues to grow. At the same time, floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures resulting from climate change are beginning to threaten global food production.

Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are now 18 times higher than they were in the 1960s, and are responsible for about 30% of global warming. Excess fertilizers left on agricultural soils are broken down by bacteria to form nitric oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Strategic efforts to reduce agriculture’s impact on global warming while maintaining high yields are essential both to mitigate climate change and to protect our food supply from its effects.

A large global research study published in ScienceCo-authored by University of Minnesota professors with more than 20 experts from around the world, it examined the links between climate and agriculture.

The study revealed the likelihood of an emerging feedback loop in which, as climate change puts increased pressure on the global food supply, agriculture adopts practices that further accelerate climate change. The authors also identified new agricultural practices that have the potential to significantly reduce climate impacts, increase efficiency, and stabilize our food supply in the decades to come.

The study found:

• Climate change has far-reaching impacts on agricultural practices: increased water consumption and scarcity, nitric oxide and methane emissions, soil degradation, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, pest pressure, pesticide pollution and loss of biodiversity.
• Feedback mechanisms between climate and agriculture could lead to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector. Without changes in agriculture, this feedback loop could make it impossible to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.
• Existing sustainable agricultural practices and technologies, if implemented at scale, can significantly reduce agricultural emissions and prevent the development of a feedback loop. To achieve this, governments must work to remove socio-economic barriers and make climate-resilient solutions accessible to farmers and food producers.

“We need agriculture, but the future of humanity also requires that we reduce the environmental damage caused by agriculture,” said David Tilman, co-author of the study and professor in the College of Biological Sciences. “Fifty years ago, the impacts of agriculture were insignificant, but today they are no longer. By evaluating new practices implemented around the world – here in the United States, Mexico, the European Union and China – we have identified practices that appear to increase yields while reducing environmental damage.”

“Once these new practices are tested and proven, we need a farm bill that pays farmers both for producing food and for improving the environment. Farmers are stewards of 40 percent of the world’s land. Better stewardship has enormous benefits for all of us.”

“Laws like the Inflation Reduction Act have provided resources to help our farms become more efficient,” said co-author Zhenong Jin, associate professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

“We looked at all aspects of this agriculture-climate relationship to determine where new practices are most effective. While carbon sequestration is currently a priority, an integrated approach that considers agricultural efficiency and pollutants like nitrous oxide could deliver much greater climate benefits and a more stable future for agriculture. Practices such as precise fertilizer use and crop rotation can prevent a feedback loop from developing.”

The team identified a number of actions that need to be taken. First, stakeholders need to accelerate adaptation and cost reduction of efficient and climate-friendly agriculture. Precision agriculture, perennial crop integration, agrivoltaics, nitrogen fixation and novel genome editing are among the emerging techniques that could increase agricultural production and efficiency while reducing the impacts of climate change.

The researchers recommend continued research into climate-agriculture feedback pathways and new technologies such as agricultural robots.