Context: Agriculture and the food we consume have a significant impact on climate change.
Fact:
- Agriculture contributed to 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2018.
How Impact
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, including methane (CH4) from enteric fermentation in livestock and nitrous oxide (N2O) from fertilizer use. These gases contribute to global warming.
- Deforestation: The expansion of agricultural land often leads to deforestation, which releases stored carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere and reduces the planet’s capacity to absorb CO2.
- Energy Use: The production, processing, and transportation of food require significant energy resources, leading to carbon emissions.
- Food Waste: A large portion of food produced is wasted, contributing to emissions from decomposition in landfills.
- Livestock: The production of meat and dairy products, particularly from intensive livestock farming, has a considerable carbon footprint due to methane emissions, land use, and feed production.
- Soil Degradation: Unsustainable farming practices can lead to soil erosion and degradation, reducing soil’s ability to sequester carbon.
- Transportation: The global food supply chain involves long-distance transportation, which adds to emissions.
- Packaging: Plastic packaging contributes to plastic pollution and affects ecosystems.
Other way Imact
- Food yield & Quality
- Nutritious content
- Cropping Pattern: Recent news of Pearl millet & shift towards eastern Aravali
- Extreme weather events can damage crops and disrupt supply chains
- Changes in trade patterns affect global food distribution.
Solutions:
- Importance of Adaptation: Scaling up support, including finance, capacity-building, and technology transfer, is urgent to enhance adaptive capacity and reduce vulnerability.
- Crop diversification
- Multi-Pronged Approach: Addressing the climate-hunger crisis involves creating resilient livelihoods, promoting climate-resilient food crops, empowering women, supporting small-holder farmers, and increasing knowledge about vulnerability and food security.
- Consumer education
- R & D for climate resilient crops