Global Climate Change and Environmental Policy: Agriculture Perspectives

Global climate change threatens human existence through its potential impact on agriculture and the environment. Agriculture is climate-sensitive, and climate variability and climate change have net negative impact on it. Additionally, the agricultural landscape is affected by monoculture and agro-biodiversity loss, soil fertility depletion and soil loss, competition from biofuel production, crop yield plateaus and invasive species. Nevertheless, the global agricultural production system has to meet the food demands from the growing human population, which is set to exceed 10 billion by 2050.

This book discusses the impacts of climate change on agriculture, animal husbandry and rural livelihoods. Further, since agriculture, forestry and other land-use sectors contribute about 10-12 gigatonnes of CO₂-equivalent per year, it argues that agricultural policy must dovetail adaptation and mitigation strategies to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. This calls fora reformative and disruptive agricultural strategy like climate-smart agriculture, which can operate at all spatio-temporal scales with few modifications. The book also redefines sustainable agriculture through the lens of climate-smart agriculture in the context of the sustainability of Earth's life- support system and inter- and intra-generational equity. The climate-smart agriculture approach is gaining currency thanks to its inherent positive potential, and its goal to establish an agricultural system which includes "climate-smart food systems", "climate-proof farms", and "climate-smart soils". Climate-smart agriculture provides a pathway to achieve sustainable development goals which focus on poverty reduction, food security, and environmental health.

Dr. V. Venkatramanan is an Assistant Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. His interests include climate change studies, biodegradation and green technologies for environmental management. He has published more than twenty research papers in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.

Dr. Shachi Shah is an environmentalist with nearly two decades of teaching and research experience at various respected universities and institutes. She is an Associate Professor (Environmental Studies) at the School of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies, IGNOU, New Delhi. Her research interests include green technologies for waste management and energy generation, bioremediation, waste valorization, plant growth promoting organisms, and biodiversity conservation, and she has authored more than fifty publications.

Dr.Ram Prasad has been associated with Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, India, since 2005. His research interests include plant-microbe interactions, sustainable agriculture and microbial nanobiotechnology. Dr. Prasad has published more than 150 research papers, review articles & book chapters and five patents, and edited or authored several books. He has twelve years of teaching experience and he has been awarded the Young Scientist Award (2007) & Prof. J.S. Datta Munshi Gold Medal (2009) by the International Society for Ecological Communications; FSAB fellowship (2010) by the Society for Applied Biotechnology; the American Cancer Society UICC International Fellowship for Beginning Investigators, USA (2014); Outstanding Scientist Award (2015) in the field of Microbiology by Venus International Foundation; BRICPL Science Investigator Award (ICAABT-2017) and Research Excellence Award (2018). Dr. Prasad has also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor, Whiting School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, USA and is currently a Research Associate Professor at the School of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.