Washington DC-based sustainable development research and policy group, the Worldwatch Institute has said that innovative means of delivering sustainable, socially just and productive agriculture are encountering successes around the world, following one of the most challenging years for agriculture in living memory, but warned that their uptake needs to be increased through government support and improved research.

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As the year draws to a close, global food prices remain hovering around record high levels, after fear over the United States' worst drought in half a century sparked price rallies which sent maize and wheat spiralling in July and August. Although food prices are stable for now, they remain high, which has caused widespread concern over access to essential staples for the world's poorest. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation assured as early as August that, thanks to a healthy rice harvest, 2012 will avoid descending into another food crisis, as happened in 2008.

This summer, record temperatures and limited rainfall parched vast areas of the US and Black Sea region, which includes areas of Russia and the Ukraine. Experts have said that, with Earth's surface air temperature projected to rise 0.69 degrees Celsius by 2030, global food production will be even more unpredictable.

As agriculture contributes an estimated 25 to 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making the sector a major contributor to anthropogenic (driven by human activity) climate change, and accounts for around 70 percent of fresh water extractions around the globe, the sector's future viability is wholly dependent on developing more sustainable farming techniques. In January this year, Respected Australian agriculturalist Terry Hehir addressed industrial farming representatives in the UK at the Oxford Farming Conference; he announced, "If we accept the paradigm that modern agriculture must consume vast amounts of non-renewable natural resources, the future of mankind is utterly dependent on finding better ways to farm."

Equally worrying is the fact that, due to its reliance on healthy soil, adequate water, and a delicate balance of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, farming is the human endeavour most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Urging for more to be done to promote sustainable agriculture at a policy level, the EU's European Environment Agency, said that of the four categories of natural resources humans rely on to survive, "The food system may well be the most vulnerable of all [to the effects of climate change]."

Positive outlook from US policy organisation

Worldwatch spokesperson Laura Reynolds maintains that, "when done sustainably [agriculture] can be an important key to mitigating climate change. Agriculture's strong interrelationships with both climatic and environmental variables also make it a significant player in reducing climate-altering emissions as well as helping the world adapt to the realities of a warming planet."

Food and Agriculture researcher Reynolds added, "The good news is that agriculture can hold an important key to mitigating climate change; practices such as using animal manure rather than artificial fertiliser, planting trees on farms to reduce soil erosion and sequester carbon, and growing food in cities all hold huge potential for reducing agriculture's environmental footprint."

The FAO has estimated that the global agricultural sector could potentially reduce and remove 80 to 88 percent of the carbon dioxide that it currently emits. By adopting more-sustainable approaches, small-scale agriculture in developing countries has the potential to contribute 70 percent of agriculture's global mitigation of climate change. Many of these innovations have the potential to be replicated, adapted, and scaled up for application on larger farms, helping to improve water availability, increase diversity, and improve soil quality, as well as mitigating climate change.

Reynolds outlined six such sustainable approaches to land and water use, in both rural and urban areas, that are helping farmers and other food producers mitigate or adapt to climate change – often both. They are:

Building Soil Fertility Alternatives to heavy chemical use in agriculture, such as avoiding unnecessary tilling or raising both crops and livestock on the same land, can help to drastically reduce the total amount of energy expended to produce a crop or animal, reducing overall emissions.

Agroforestry Because trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, keeping them on farms whenever possible can help mitigate climate change. Agroforestry also keeps the soil healthier and more resilient by maximising the amount of organic matter, microorganisms, and moisture held within it. Agroforestry also provides shade for livestock and certain crops, and creates habitats for animals and insects, such as bees, that pollinate many crops.

Urban Farming Growing food in cities can mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions released from the transport, processing, and storage of food destined for urban populations by growing it where people live. Innovative approaches to urban farming are taking off around the world. Urban agriculture also increases the total area of non-paved land in cities, making urban landscapes more resilient to flooding and other weather shocks, while improving the aesthetic value of these landscapes and increasing species diversity.

Cover Cropping/Green Manure Cover cropping, also known as green manure, involves strategically planting crops that will deliver a range of benefits to a farming system, and often plowing these crops into the soil instead of harvesting their organic matter. Planting cover crops improves soil fertility and moisture by making soil less vulnerable to drought or heat waves. Cover crops also serve as a critical deterrent against pests and diseases that affect crops or livestock, such as corn root worm or Rift Valley fever, particularly as warmer temperatures enable these organisms to survive in environments that were previously too cold for them.

Improving Water Conservation and Recycling Innovations in water conservation, including recycling wastewater in cities, using precise watering techniques such as drip irrigation rather than sprinklers, and catching and storing rainwater, all help to reduce the global strain on already-scarce water resources.

Preserving Biodiversity and Indigenous Breeds Growing diverse and locally adapted indigenous crops, such as yams, quinoa, and cassava, can provide a source of income and improve farmers' chances of withstanding the effects of climate change, such as heat stress, drought, and the expansion of disease and pest populations. Preserving plant and animal biodiversity also reduces farmers' overreliance on a small number of commodity crops that make them vulnerable to shifts in global markets.

Worldwatch has said that, through rolling out climate-friendly farming practices that already exist, agriculture can continue to provide food for the world's population, as well as remaining a source of livelihood for 1.3 billion people worldwide. If agriculture is to play a positive role in the global fight against climate change, however, "practices that mitigate or adapt to climate change will need to receive increased research, attention, and investment in the coming years", Dr Reynolds warned.

 Researchers from the UK's Centre for Agroecology and Food Security have suggested that, despite calls from research institutes such as their own, government committees and UN rapporteurs, a powerful industrial lobby and ideological resistance has hampered uptake of some potentially beneficial new approaches.

A new report by Worldwatch, Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture: Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production looks in depth at measures which could reduce agriculture's environmental footprint.

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