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    Agriculture and climate

    The issue of climate change brings out two constraints for the agricultural sector: agricultural practices need to be less polluting for soils and the atmosphere (the term used is mitigation) and more resistant to present and future climate disruption (the sector of adaptation).

    RECONCILING ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION

    Conservation agriculture combines a no-till production method – the soil must be disturbed as little as possible – with biomass management (build up of crop residue and implementation of cover plants) and the practice of crop rotation.

    This agriculture greatly reduces GHG emissions compared to conventional tilling practices: in motorized agriculture it reduces fuel consumption and in all manual, mechanized and motorized agriculture it involves sequestrating carbon in the organic matter which is built up more and decomposes more slowly.

    Moreover, by making soils more porous, water infiltration is improved and runoff is consequently reduced. The residue also forms a protective layer, reduces evaporation, slows down erosion and increases crop resistance to extreme phenomena (particularly drought). Conservation agriculture therefore combines several actions: mitigation of impacts on the environment, adaptation to climate change, and sustainable soil management.

    AFD is for example supporting the development of conservation agriculture in Madagascar, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia and Vietnam.

    >> See all Agriculture projects