Climate Smart Agriculture
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA), as defined and presented by FAO at the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010, contributes to the achievement of sustainable development goals.
It integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) by jointly addressing food security and climate challenges. It is composed of three main pillars:
- sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes;
- adapting and building resilience to climate change;
- reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases emissions, where possible.
CSA is an approach to developing the technical, policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under climate change. The magnitude, immediacy and broad scope of the effects of climate change on agricultural systems create a compelling need to ensure comprehensive integration of these effects into national agricultural planning, investments and programs. The CSA approach is designed to identify and operationalize sustainable agricultural development within the explicit parameters of climate change.
Many agricultural practices identified as relevant to CSA include rainwater harvesting and conservation elements, and are therefore closely related to the practices promoted through the WRC Amanzi for Food project.