Editorial: Climate change, variability and sustainable food systems

Résumé

This book is a synthesis of papers on "Climate change, variability and sustainable food systems". The key lessons learnt from the papers are summarized. In total, nine papers were received, including, three review papers and seven original research papers. One of the review papers focused on cassava sector in Southern Africa, one on green revolution in India and the other on global carbon smart technologies. Three of the original research papers used Asian data, specifically from India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Two of the research papers used data from Ethiopia and Zambia in Africa, and two employed North American data from Honduras and Guatemala.In a systematic review by Yeboah et al. (2021), the paper identified minimum tillage, crop residue retention, agroforestry, biofuels, integrated nutrient management and land use management systems as the main carbon smart technologies. The paper concluded that conservation agriculture (CA) and agroforestry technologies tend to increase carbon storage to mitigate the effects of climate change while achieving sustainable food supply to enhance food security.Using Zambia data, Umar (2021) showed that lower crop yields, outbreaks of armyworms, and reduced livestock folder were the main effects of climate change on women farms while men self-reported reduced crop yields, reduced water for livestock and outbreaks of armyworms. Both women and men perceived CA to be beneficial, particularly, increasing moisture holding capacity of basins and increasing crop yields. The paper concluded that CA package for Zambia needs to include timely climate information and climate informed crop choices.In Ethiopia, Horamo et al. (2021) showed that agroforestry as a soil fertility enhancing technology, improved crop yield. The study further indicates that farmers who accumulate knowledge on tree-crop and tree-animal interactions, the role of trees in soil fertility, crop and livestock improvement, could significantly promote sustainable agriculture. This suggests the need to document local knowledge on CA and make them more accessible to development practitioners.A scoping review by Amelework et al. (2021) shows that cassava as a climate resilient crop, has the potential for industrial development in South Africa (SA). However, the potential can only be realised if there is reliable supply of quality cassava roots. The study found the lack of a well-established cassava research program and lack of an existing value chain for commercial cassava production as the main barriers to the development of the cassava sector in SA.The study by Ghosh-Jerath et al. (2021) revealed that in India, local communities attribute reduced crop yields, reduced diversity and food availability to low and erratic rainfall to long dry spells. The study further showed that declined agroforestry products and diversity tend to reduce household income and labour migration from agriculture to unskilled wage employment. Also, local communities use adaptation strategies such as climate-resilient indigenous crop varieties for farming, seed conservation and access to indigenous forest foods and weeds for consumption during adverse situations and lean periods to be able to cope with climate variability. The study concludes that promoting sustainable adaptation strategies, with adequate knowledge and technology, could increase farm resilience, income, household food security and dietary diversity. John and Babu (2021) in their study, reported that the Green Revolution enhanced food security but had unintended negative effects on agriculture and human health in India. They argued in the paper that some of the negative effects include increasing agrochemicals (pesticides and inorganic fertilisers) use leading to pollution of water bodies, air pollution, imbalance in pest predator and prey as well as extinction of local crop varieties. Indiscriminate use of pesticides has therefore led to several human health-related diseases in the nervous, endocrine, reproductive, and immune systems (John and Badu, 2021).The paper by Hossain et al. (2021) identified high temperature, cold spell, heavy rainfall and dry spell as key climatic shocks affecting aquaculture activities, especially pond preparation and maintenance, fingerling stocking, grow-out management, and harvesting in Bangladesh. The study proposed a decision framework to reduce climate risks and ensure resilience capacity for South Asian aquaculture system. McKinley et al. (2021) showed in their study that perceived heat stress, low yield, food insecurity, increased debt, gender (male), education, farm experience, farm size and household size were significant drivers of farmers choice of adaptation strategies to climate change in Vietnam.In conclusion, sustainable food systems in changing climate could be achieved through the following strategies: 1) promotion of carbon smart technologies, especially conservation agriculture and agroforestry should intensified, 2) proper documentation of local knowledge on agroforestry practices to them more accessible to development practitioners, 3) Climate resilient crop varieties need to be promoted, 4) development and implementation of appropriate decision framework to reduce climate risk and resilience in aquaculture system, 5) environmental risk assessment need to conducted prior to implementation of major agricultural development policies to minimize unintended negative impacts.

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