What is "climate-smart" agriculture and how do we know if it works? Report authors call for a CSA framework.

U.S. farmers have their hands full amid increased production demands, climate change management and working to use fewer environmentally harmful practices. In response to those needs, a new agricultural strategy known as "climate-smart agriculture" has evolved; however, the concept lacks a prescribed model. In their article for the Prairie Research Institute, Olivia Messerges and Trent Ford "call for developing a consistent, widely applicable, and standardized framework to assess what makes a specific agricultural system or practice 'climate-smart' and analyzes agroforestry and prescribed grazing within said framework."

At this time, CSA is broadly defined with a three-pillar structure, which includes: increasing agricultural productivity, enhancing agricultural resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond those requirements, more specific guidance is needed. Messerges and Ford explain: "A standardized framework would also enable producers, policymakers and researchers to consistently compare the effectiveness, tradeoffs and implementation barriers of various CSA systems and practices. The framework will result in improved implementation of CSA goals, better policy development, and more informed decision-making processes on a national scale. . . . This article subsequently provides examples of such an assessment using examples of agroforestry and prescribed grazing systems, which are often referred to as 'climate-smart.'"

In its simplest terms, agroforestry means farming with trees, and its use is divided into four methods including silvopasture, riparian forest buffers, forest farming and alley cropping. Each implementation practice comes with a complex set of positives, negatives and "we don't know yet" results. "Alley cropping can support soil stabilization, bioremediation, and biodiversity, which are important for climate change adaptation and emission reduction," Messerges and Ford note. "However, root competition with grain or horticulture crops may hinder production benefits. Riparian forest buffers are effective at helping farmers to become more resilient. . . but productivity and emission benefits are not well-known." 

Prescribed grazing is another farming practice considered "climate-smart," but once again without a structure the term and use of grazing as a method that delivers on the three pillars is hard to measure. "In the context of the three-pillar framework, the CSA benefits of prescribed grazing are less clear than for agroforestry," Messerges and Ford report. "While prescribed grazing offers many benefits, there is substantial uncertainty in its effectiveness in achieving CSA objectives."

To read Messerges and Ford's full report, sources and descriptive graphs, click here.