Faced with climate change and diminishing opportunities to expand productive agricultural acreage, the world needs to invest in a global research agenda addressing farm and food systems, landscape and regional issues and institutional and policy matters if it is to meet the growing worldwide demand for food, fibre and fuel.

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These are the recommendations of an international group of experts, who met in California to discuss 'climate smart agriculture' last year. The recommendations have been drawn from a paper published this week in the journal Agriculture and Food Security. The paper's authors summarise the findings of the second international Climate Smart Agriculture conference held in March 2013 at UC Davis, California.

The conference organisers from the Platform for Agro-Biodiversity Research (PAR) said global efforts are needed to create an environment where decision makers can:

• Ensure  sustainable and equitable increases in agricultural productivity and incomes;
• Improve the  resilience of food systems and farming livelihoods; and
• Contribute to the reduction and/or removal of greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture (including the relationship between agriculture and ecosystems), wherever possible.

The authors said their Climate Smart Agriculture recommendations have been supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

They recommended forming a three-pronged approach. The three themes identified include, at the micro-level, looking at farm systems, "crop physiology and genetics," and aspects of livestock production; at the landscape level taking a more ecological look at the environmental system in which farming takes place (including creating multifunctional agroecosystems and considering 'ecosystem services'). The researchers also suggest bridging gaps between different disciplines and looking at barriers to policies that will help agriculture develop in a way that will benefit people and the plant, and address the threat of climate change.

"Climate-smart agriculture has become a global policy initiative for economic development, poverty reduction and food security," says lead author Kerri Steenwerth, a U.S. Department of Agriculture soil scientist and professor at UC Davis.

"It makes sense for farmers, consumers and food businesses because it is focused on the long-term sustainability of supply chains, and applies both to farmers' fields and to the natural landscape," she said.

The experts recommended placing "a stronger emphasis on knowledge-to-action," improving applications of new breakthroughs and communication between researchers and those working in the field. They said "momentum that has already built among the science community for CSA," but that researchers must take active roles in helping communities and societies to change and adapt to new pressures is essential to this.

The report was produced ahead of the third global science conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture, which is scheduled to be held March 16-18, 2015 in Montpellier, France. The authors said they hope progress can be made on the points outlined in this week's paper.