World Earth Day: Modern Agriculture for a safer environment

By Joshua Raymond Muhumuza

On April 22, is World Earth Day. It has been commemorated since 1970, when it was first celebrated.

On this day, over 190 nations took part in a variety of activities to increase awareness about environmental safety among their citizenry, as well as commit and recommit themselves to work towards a cleaner and safer global environment.

One of these activities was a global campaign that has been dubbed ‘March for Science', in which scientists and well-wishers of science globally unite to call for science that upholds the common good, and for policymakers to enact evidence-based policies in the public interest.

Over 500 marches in over 40 countries were planned. In Uganda, the march was intended to foster discussions on the role of science in addressing critical development challenges in the country.

Despite continued efforts and commitment from governments worldwide to preserve the pristine nature of and live harmoniously with our environment, global trends indicate otherwise; climate change and destruction of natural resources linger on as the biggest challenge faced by the world today.

An incessant demand for resources by a growing population is putting tremendous pressures on our planet's biodiversity and threatening our future security, health and well-being. Sadly, agriculture comes second after energy as the biggest contributor to global warming.

The disturbing irony is that our sole source of food and by extension life, is also something of a time bomb waiting to go off on our planet.

Climate implications for agriculture are significant, clear and direct.  Similarly agriculture has important consequences for global climate. Fossil fuel for farm inputs and equipment, animal agriculture, land clearing and preparation are significant contributors to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), farming is responsible for over 25% of total global GHG emissions. By contrast, the share of farming in global gross domestic product (GDP) is about 4%, indicating that agriculture is highly GHG intensive.

With such staggering statistics and the global population set to hit 9 billion by 2050, we are unlikely to witness a shift in dynamics as we continue to eke more resources from the environment unless deliberate effort is made to redeem what is left of our planet and expiate the damage already inflicted upon it.

The principal challenge of climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture is to produce more food more efficiently under more capricious production conditions, with net reductions in GHG emissions from food production and marketing.

Agricultural technologies will play a central role in enabling producers to meet these fundamental challenges. However, while most technologies have climate implications, some are of particular relevance to agriculture and climate change in developing countries.

The terrific rate at which climate is changing also necessitates a swift and radical change in coping strategies for agriculture.

Several new agricultural technologies offer farmers not only increased productivity but also greater flexibility in adapting to climate change including traits that confer tolerance to stresses such as drought, salinity, pests and diseases as well as early maturation so as to reduce farmers' exposure to risk of extreme weather events.

Such improved crops will improve farmers' ability to adapt to climate change. These crops reduce carbon emissions by decreasing demand for and frequency of pesticide applications.

These promising technologies can emerge from traditional breeding techniques that leverage existing varieties well suited to the vagaries of local production environments but also importantly from more advanced biotechnology techniques such as genetic modification.

Agricultural biotechnology provides a particularly promising set of tools that have produced dramatic improvements in yield, reductions in input use intensity and production costs. Biotech crops that have benefited agriculture and reduced emissions include genetically modified crops with pest resistance and herbicide tolerance.

In 2012, biotech crops grown on roughly 12 percent of the world's arable land were responsible for a total reduction in GHG emissions of over 26.7 billion kg of carbon dioxide.

Uganda has made noteworthy progress in biotech research to address a diversity of farmer challenges, enhance productivity, food and nutritional security as well as reduce the carbon foot print of agriculture.

Crops under biotech research in Uganda comprise banana, cassava, Irish potato, maize, rice and sweet potato, all key food security crops. With parts of the country facing famine due to erratic climatic conditions particularly prolonged drought and pests and diseases such as the recent fall armyworm outbreak, such technologies cannot be ignored.

While new agricultural technologies will play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, responding to climate change demands a multipronged approach including better post-harvest technologies and production practices, water management, information, forecasting and insurance among others.

The writer is a research assistant with the Uganda Biosciences Information Center