Conservation practices to mitigate and adapt to climate change

Climate change, in combination with the expanding human population, presents a formidable food security challenge: how will we feed a world population that is expected to grow by an additional 2.4 billion people by 2050? Population growth and the dynamics of climate change will also exacerbate other issues, such as desertification, deforestation, erosion, degradation of water quality, and depletion of water resources, further complicating the challenge of food security. These factors, together with the fact that energy prices may increase in the future, which will increase the cost of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and fuel, make the future of food security a major concern. Additionally, it has been reported that climate change can increase potential erosion rates, which can lower agricultural productivity by 10% to 20% (or more in extreme cases). Climate change could contribute to higher temperatures and evapotranspiration and lower precipitation across some regions. This will add additional pressure to draw irrigation water from some already overexploited aquifers, where the rate of water recharge is lower than the withdrawal rates. These and other water issues exacerbated by climate change present a serious concern because, on average, irrigated system yields are frequently double those of nonirrigated systems. The…

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