By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Global demands for food are increasing, but climate change and limited natural resources are leading farmers to seek Climate Smart techniques to increase production while protecting the environment.
Peter Tomlinson, a Kansas State University environmental agronomist, gave a presentation on Climate Smart agriculture Tuesday during a Crop Talk webinar hosted by K-State Research and Extension.
"It goes beyond thinking about cropland," Tomlinson said. "It's about how we integrate approaches across all of our managed landscapes—everything from cropland to our salt and freshwater fisheries, livestock, and forests system.
"Across these systems, how do we address an interwoven challenge of food security needs as well as addressing climate change-driven challenges that face all of these landscapes?"
The three main goals of Climate-Smart agriculture are to increase productivity, increase resiliency and reduce emissions.
The concept covers many practices farmers are already doing, including nutrient management, conservation tillage and the use of cover crops.
Fewer tillage passes decrease emissions, save fuel and decrease soil erosion. By decreasing the amount of nitrogen fertilizer farmers use, they can reduce emissions as well as reap economic savings, Tomlinson said.
The planet is facing a growing population, which has resulted in an increase in the demand for food.
The agriculture industry is struggling to keep up, Tomlinson said. Crop yields are leveling off and farmers are putting more stress on natural resources.
In 2020, 690 million people were considered hungry, according to the World Bank. That is 8.9 percent of the world's population.
While food demand is increasing, so are challenges for food producers.
The U.S. is experiencing higher-than-average daily temperatures and a change in frost-free days. This is changing the growing season and growing zones, Tomlinson said.
Weather variability can result in conditions that are too wet or too dry to plant and then drought can lead to crop loss, he said.
With changes in climate, farmers are feeling greater pressure from disease and insects that they would not normally see in Kansas.
Although Kansas has been in severe drought during the last year, over the last 10 years the state has had above-average precipitation.
Climate change is being driven by both natural causes and human activity. Agriculture generates between 19 and 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, Tomlinson said.
The World Bank estimates about one-third of global food production never makes it to a hungry person. It is lost at the farm, in transport or in other circumstances.
K-State has been involved in promoting many conservation practices, including terraces, reduced or no-till production, residue management and cover crops, Tomlinson said.
Many research and conservation projects are ongoing in Kansas.
These include cover crop studies, Kansas Watershed Field Laboratory, Kansas Corn Growers Association Soil Health Partnership, U. S. Department of Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture System Project and SMARTFARM for Sorghum.
The sorghum project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to research sorghum production for use in ethanol.
The USDA announced in February 2022 it was accepting proposals from producers for Climate Smart Commodity Projects. The projects have a time frame of one to five years. The proposals ranged from $250,000 to $100 million.
The department selected 141 projects (24 of which were in Kansas) with a total investment of more than $3.1 billion.
The aim of the projects is to provide technical and financial assistance on a voluntary basis on working land with the goal of producing verifiable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, Tomlinson said.
The National Sorghum Producers Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities Project also seeks to encourage producers to implement climate-friendly practices with the goals of reducing carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum.