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Opportunities and Challenges for Climate-Smart Agriculture
HARIJONO DJOJODIHARDJO1*3AND DESA AHMAD2 1Professor, Aerospace Engineering Department
2Professor, Smart Farming Technology Research Centre
Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia *Corresponding Author, harijono.djojodihardjo@gmail.com
3also: Retired Professor, Universitas Al-Azhar Indonesia
Abstract: - Food security, poverty and climate change are closely linked. Climate-Smart Agriculture is a very
significant part of the solution for both Climate Change mitigation and Sustainable Agriculture. Agriculture has
much to contribute to a low emissions development strategy. Since in many countries agriculture provides a high
mitigation potential, Green House Gases (GHG) emissions reduction efforts must include agriculture. Climate-
smart agriculture is essential for building capacity, experience and guiding future choices, as well as smart
management of natural resources. Two aspects of Climate-Smart Agriculture will be discussed, macro and micro.
The macro aspect will elaborate policies and global efforts, while micro aspects will elaborate specific techniques
and technologies for the implementation of Climate-smart Agriculture. On the macro aspects, the objective of
global initiatives of the Global Alliance is to seek improvements in people’s food and nutrition security by helping
governments, farmers, scientists, businesses, and civil society, to facilitate climate change mitigation and efficient
use of natural resources. Initial action areas include knowledge, investment and enabling environment. In the
micro aspect, the use of aerospace technology and engineering analysis techniques to facilitate higher yields for
certain crop will be elaborated and exemplified. These techniques can provide data which the farmers can use to
monitor and to help determine yields of their farming products, through the provision of relevant satellite data.
Key-Words: - Climate-Smart Agriculture; Green Space Technology; Management of Natural Resources; Space
Environmental Observation; Space Technology; Wireless Sensor Networks
1 Introduction Food security, poverty and climate change are closely
linked and should not be considered separately. The
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) places a high priority on
agriculture. Climate-Smart Agriculture is a very
significant part of the solution for both Climate
Change mitigation and Sustainable Agriculture.
Agriculture can contribute to climate change
mitigation in three ways, avoiding further
deforestation and conversion of wetlands and
grasslands, increasing the storage of carbon in
vegetation and soil, and reducing current and
avoiding future increases in emissions from nitrous
oxide and from methane. Agriculture has much to
contribute to a low emissions development strategy.
In many countries it is agriculture and not industry or
transport that provides a high mitigation potential.
Any serious effort to reduce GHG emissions must
include agriculture. Major productivity gains are
possible given the large gaps between current yields
and the yields that are possible with improved inputs
and management while also promoting low GHG
emission options. Climate-smart agriculture offers
some unique opportunities to tackle food security,
adaptation and mitigation objectives. In addition,
agriculture played a central role in agriculture as a
means to poverty alleviation and to impose major
negative impacts that climate change is likely to have
on many parts of the world. Early action in climate-
smart agriculture has been considered to be essential
to build capacity, experience and guide future
choices.
It will be instructive, before delving to Climate-
Smart Agriculture, to define what is meant by smart
system. A smart system or product should facilitate
the interaction of the system with human beings, and
is able to adapt to the context of the user without
forcing the user to adapt to it. It may comprise one or
more of the following characteristics [1];
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o Ability to co-operate with other devices.
o Adaptability to learn and improve the
compatibility between its functioning and its
environment
o Autonomy, which implies that the device or
system can operate without interference from
the user
o Ability to interact with human through
natural interaction fitting human.
o Multi-functionality, which implies a single
product capable of performing multiple
functions, such as a modern mobile phone.
o Personality, which implies that the product is
capable to be proactive and perform the
properties of credible personality,
o Reactivity, which implies that the device can
react to its environment in a desired way.
Figure 1. Smart Quality Control, adapted from Barreiro et
al [1].
A smart system is capable to carry out an integral
approach, from sensing to acting, to carry out optimal
on-line control for performance or product quality
through smart sensing techniques, as exhibited in
Figure 1.
Then the objectives of the present work can be
outlined as:
1. To review international and UN-sponsored
initiatives in establishing climate-smart
resources management,
2. To identify supporting macro policies and
global initiatives in seeking improvements in
people’s food and nutrition security, and
3. To elaborate and exemplify specific
techniques and technologies for the
implementation of Climate-smart
Agriculture.
2 Climate-Smart Agriculture World agriculture has become considerably more
efficient in the past decades. Production systems as
well as crop and livestock breeding programs
improvements have resulted in a significant increase
of food production while increasing the amount of
agricultural land by just 10 percent. However,
climate change is expected to exacerbate the existing
challenges faced by agriculture [2].
Food security and climate change are closely
linked in the agriculture sector and that key
opportunities exist to transform the sector towards
climate-smart systems that address both. Climate
change threatens production’s stability and
productivity. Climate change is expected to reduce
productivity to even lower levels and make
production more erratic [3]. Preserving and
enhancing food security requires agricultural
production systems to change in the direction of
higher productivity and also, essentially, lower
output variability in the face of climate risk and risks
of an agro-ecological and socio-economic nature. In
order to stabilize output and income, production
systems must become more resilient, i.e. more
capable of performing well in the face of disruptive
events. More productive and resilient agriculture
requires transformations in the management of
natural resources (e.g. land, water, soil nutrients, and
genetic resources) and higher efficiency in the use of
these resources and inputs for production.
Transitioning to such systems could also generate
significant mitigation benefits by increasing carbon
sinks, as well as reducing emissions per unit of
agricultural product.
Accordingly, both commercial and subsistence
agricultural systems need transformations, subject to
significant differences in priorities and capacity. Key
concerns are increasing efficiency and reducing
emissions, as well as other negative environmental
impacts. In countries where agriculture is critical for
economic development [4], smallholder systems
transformation is important for food security and
poverty reduction. Here productivity to achieve food
security is clearly a priority, which will contribute to
a significant increase in emissions from the
agricultural sector in developing countries [5]. A
concerted effort to maximize synergies and minimize
tradeoffs between productivity and mitigation should
be carried out to achieve the necessary levels of
growth on a lower emissions trajectory. To meet
these challenges it is essential to ensure that
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institutions and incentives are in place for climate-
smart transitions, in addition to adequate financial
resources.
Two aspects of Climate-Smart Agriculture will be
discussed, macro and micro. The macro aspect will
elaborate policies and global efforts, while micro
aspects will elaborate specific techniques and
technologies for the implementation of Climate-mart
Agriculture. On the macro aspects, global initiatives
that have been the objective of the Global Alliance to
seek improvements in people’s food and nutrition
security by helping governments, farmers, scientists,
businesses, and civil society, as well as regional and
international organizations, to adjust agricultural
practices, food systems and social policies to
facilitate climate change mitigation and efficient use
of natural resources will be discussed. Priorities for
action have to be identified to maximize such
improvements, commensurate with the needs and
priorities of members. Three initial action areas can
be identified: knowledge, investment and enabling
environment.
In the micro aspect, the use of aerospace
engineering analysis techniques to facilitate higher
yields for certain crop will be elaborated and
discussed. Such technique can provide data which the
farmers can use to monitor and to help determine
yields of their farming products. Such situation is
made possible through the provision of relevant
satellite data, such as those pertaining to terrain
heights, water‐level data, annual land crop records,
soil maps, meteorological data, and data from the
vegetation and soil scanners affixed to tractors, as
applicable. Climate-smart agricultural production
systems can be cited as examples.
3 Climate-Smart Agriculture Macro
Aspect One of the major challenges faced at present is
ensuring food security under a changing climate.
Using optimistic lower-end projections of
temperature rise, climate change may reduce crop
yields by 10–20 percent by the 2050s. Projections of price rises range from about 30 percent
for rice to over 100 percent for maize, due to climate
change [6]. Using a pessimistic high-end projection of
temperature rise, the impacts on productivity and
prices are even greater. Challenges in Green House
gases growth and global efforts for their Climate
Change effects can be appreciated by looking at
Figures 2a and b, reproduced from [5].
While the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) can establish the
international policy framework for how agriculture is
incorporated into future climate agreements, much
policy development has to occur in national, regional
and continental policy arenas. At the national level,
adaptation plans and mitigation strategies, including
those related to reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancing
forest stocks in developing countries are being
prepared. However, as noted in a recent analysis,
strategies and actions for agriculture remain very
general. Strategies to fully incorporate agricultural
adaptation and mitigation into climate change
strategies need more tangible, detailed measures that
build on existing efforts and are calibrated to local
conditions. Several macro issues which can be
translated to actors in the fields are required, such as
Strategies and Incentives for Climate Smart
Agriculture, Early Policy action in Climate Smart
Agriculture and Financing Climate Smart
Agriculture.
The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart
Agriculture was launched at the UN Climate Summit
2014 on 24th September as a concerted efforts toward
Food Security for 9 Billion People by 2050 [7]. It
covers more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe
and Latin America, and more than 35 organizations.
It is a voluntary, farmer-led, multi-stakeholder,
action-oriented coalition committed to the
incorporation of climate-smart approaches within
food and agriculture systems. The Global Alliance
will seek to improve people’s food and nutrition
security by assisting governments, farmers,
scientists, businesses, and civil society, as well as
regional and international organizations, to adjust
agricultural practices, food systems and social
policies so that they take account of climate change
and efficient use of natural resources. The Alliance
was established to acknowledge that food security is
the point of departure for climate-smart agriculture.
(a)
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(b)
Figure 2. (a) Total annual anthropogenic GHG emissions
(GtCO2eq / yr) by groups of gases 1970 – 2010: CO2 from
fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes; CO2 from
Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU); methane (CH4);
nitrous oxide (N2O); fluorinated gases covered under the
Kyoto Protocol. At the right side of the figure GHG
emissions in 2010 are broken down into these components
with the associated uncertainties indicated by the error
bars. Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion
are known within 8 % uncertainty (90 % confidence
interval). CO2 emissions have very large uncertainties
attached in the order of 50 %. Uncertainty for global
emissions of CH4, N2O and the F-gases has been
estimated as 20 %, 60 % and 20 %, respectively (adapted
from [5]). (b) Pathways of global GHG emissions
(GtCO2eq / yr) in baseline and mitigation scenarios for
different long-term concentration levels (upper panel) and
associated upscaling requirements of low-carbon energy
(% of primary energy) for 2030, 2050 and 2100 compared
to 2010 levels in mitigation scenarios (lower panel). The
lower panel excludes scenarios with limited technology
availability and exogenous carbon price trajectories
(reproduced from [5]).
The Global Alliance will enable governments and
other stakeholders to make these transformations in
ways that bridge traditional sectoral, organizational
and public/private boundaries. It will broker, catalyze
and help create transformational partnerships to
encourage actions that reflect an integrated approach
to the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture, as
well as synergies between them. The pillars include
sustainable improvements in productivity, building
resilience, and reducing and removing greenhouse
gases. The partnerships will inspire the development
and dissemination of innovative, evidence-based
options for climate-smart agriculture in different
settings, and will involve a broad range of
government and other stakeholders" [7].
4 Micro Aspect: Space Technology
Derived Climate-Smart Agriculture
4.1 General Observation Climate-Smart Agriculture seeks to increase
productivity in an environmentally and socially
sustainable way, strengthen farmers’ resilience to
climate change, and reduce agriculture’s contribution
to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and increasing carbon storage on farmland.
Climate-smart agriculture includes proven practical
techniques, such as mulching, intercropping,
conservation agriculture, crop rotation, integrated
crop-livestock management, agroforestry, improved
grazing, and improved water management. Also
innovative practices such as better weather
forecasting, early warning systems and risk insurance
are required. In the macro aspect, it involves the
creation of and enabling policy environment for
adaptation. In the micro aspect, it involves the
availability of existing off the shelf technologies for
farmers and the development of new technologies
such as drought tolerant crops to meet the demands
of the changing climate [2, 8]. Sustainable
Intensification seeks to increase yield per unit of land
to meet today’s needs without exceeding current
resources or reducing the resources needed for the
future. Carbon sequestration is the process by which
atmospheric carbon dioxide is taken up by plants
through photosynthesis and stored as carbon in
biomass and soils.
Tremendous challenges are being faced by the global
agricultural system. UN FAO [10] projected that food
production must increase by 70 percent over the next
forty years to satisfy increasing demand due to
population growth and rising economic prosperity.
Figure 3. Projections for rising global demand for crops
and declining arable land per capita ([9], based on
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
projection).
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The main challenge of global agriculture is
meeting the rising demand of the growing population,
which is projected to increase from seven billion
people today to approximately nine billion in 2050.
However, the expansion of productive agricultural
land is limited, and in addition climate change may
pose further constraint.
Many factors will determine the food demand and
production in 2050, and the general trends suggest
that significantly more food will be needed while
facing climate change and diminishing resources
challenges. Climate change will pose a serious
challenge to the projections of rising global demand
for crops and declining arable land per capita, as
illustrated in Figure 3.
4.2 Space Technology Derived Instruments
to Facilitate Climate Smart Agriculture
4.2.1 Microradiometers Reveal Climate Change
Biospherical company’s Compact-Optical Profiling
System, or C-OPS, a new radiometer system product
devised by a NASA partner and enabled by a
promising technology for oceanographers and
atmospheric scientists alike. Color is a function of
light. Pure water is clear, but the variation in color
depends on the water’s depth and the constituents in
it—how far down the light penetrates and how it is
absorbed and scattered by dissolved and suspended
material.
A radiometer system on a platform with adjustable
buoyancy, C-OPS descends through the water,
making highly accurate measurements on the way.
Figure 4. An example of Space-Technology derived
Radiometer for Climate-Smart Applications [11].
The system is ideal for satellite calibration and
validation activities and for conducting research both
in shallow waters close to land and in deep waters far
out at sea. An example of such radiometer is
exhibited in Figure 4. Figure 5 illustrates the
technology and functioning of a smart sensor.
Ocean color can reveal about the health of the
ocean, and in turn, the health of our planet. It could
be related to the productivity of the water. The
seawater contains phytoplankton—microscopic
plants—which are the food base for the ocean’s
ecosystems. Changes in the water’s properties,
whether due to natural seasonal effects or human
influence, can lead to problems for delicate
ecosystems such as coral reefs. Ocean color can
inform researchers about the quantities and
distribution of phytoplankton and other materials,
providing clues as to how the world ocean is
changing. The technology is derived from NASA’s
Coastal Zone Color Scanner, launched in 1978, the
first ocean color instrument flown on a spacecraft.
Since then, the Agency’s ocean color research
capabilities have become increasingly sophisticated
with the launch of the SeaWiFS instrument in 1997
and the twin MODIS instruments carried into orbit on
NASA’s Terra (1999) and Aqua (2002) satellites.
The technology provides sweeping, global
information on ocean color on a scale unattainable by
any other means. The SeaWiFS instrument has been
collecting ocean data since 1997. By monitoring the
color of reflected light via satellite, scientists can
determine how successfully plant life is
photosynthesizing. This image represents nearly a
decade’s worth of data taken by the SeaWiFS
instrument, showing the abundance of life in the sea.
The instruments must be continuously calibrated over
time to maintain the quality of the data they gather
from orbit. To validate and calibrate the satellites,
researchers must also gather data at sea level.
Figure 5. An example of smart sensor. The Crossbow
motes (MICAz or Xbow), well know commercially
available Zigbee motes with sensor card (MTS 420) [1].
Table 1: Examples of sensor types and their outputs [12].
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A C-OPS configuration called ICE-Pro has been
used to gather measurements from boreholes drilled
deep into the Arctic ice. Also employing the core
microradiometer technology is Biospherical’s
Advanced Multi-purpose USB Radiometer, or
AMOUR. It is a high-speed radiometer that can be
plugged into a computer’s USB port like a mouse,
AMOUR provides a uniquely versatile tool for field
research. And through a 2008 joint project with
NASA, Biospherical created the only commercially
available satellite vicarious calibration and algorithm
validation system. Called the Optical Sensors for
Planetary Radiant Energy (OSPREy) system, it
employs microradiometers and other instruments on
multiple platforms to gather a comprehensive array
of oceanic and atmospheric information to compare
to satellite data. The adaptability of the Space
Technology spinoff technology benefits both
scientists and users [11, 13]. This technology can be
applied to multiple disciplines. An additional benefit
of the microradiometer is the fact that it is machine
made. The availability of technologies like
Biospherical’s microradiometer as providing the
means to create a baseline understanding of the rich
diversity of ocean ecosystems around the world,
many of which are unique. Biospherical has had
substantial commercial success with its spinoff
innovations, with significant export sales to
researchers in countries ranging from Poland to
Canada and China. Most recently, Biospherical
adapted its microradiometers to fly in aircraft,
conducting atmospheric research in partnership with
NASA’s Ames Research Center and demonstrating
that the limits of its NASA-derived technology have
yet to be reached, to adapt this technology to make
measurements that have not been made before [11].
Table 1 exhibits examples of sensor types and their
output.
4.2.2 Sensors Enable Plants to Text Message to
Farmers
NASA long researched sustainable food technologies
designed for space have resulted in spinoffs that
improve the nutrition, safety, and durability of food
on Earth. There are of course tradeoffs involved in
making astronauts part-time farmers. Any time spent
tending plants is time that can’t be spent elsewhere:
collecting data, exploring, performing routine
maintenance, or sleeping. As scarce as time is for
astronauts, resources are even more limited. It is
highly practical, therefore, as a by-product of
astronauts' space activities, astronauts act as part-
time farmers, which has to be ensured that farming in
space is as automated and precise as possible. The
relationship between plant leaf rigidity and its water
content, and whether such data could be directly
measured using sensors have been studied. Then a
prototype sensor is developed that measured
thickness by way of electrical pulses, taking
advantage of the relationship between plant leaf
rigidity and its water content, thus directly measuring
such data using sensors. Such sensor-based watering
could eliminate a significant amount of guesswork in
farming and free up time and resources that could be
applied elsewhere. The technologies should make a
closed ecological life support system more efficient.
With the sensors, healthy plants can be grown while
reducing water use between 25 and 45 percent
compared to traditional methods. The next step in
product development was to perform a field test on a
large scale. The test, though not terribly practical,
proved effective. For the first time in human history,
plants in a field are telling the farmer how much
water they had and when they needed more, contrary
to conventional plants irrigated using traditional
methods that had actually received more water than
was necessary.
4.2.3 Photocatalytic Solutions Create Self-
Clearing Surfaces
Photocatalysis is essentially the opposite of
photosynthesis, the process used by plants to create
energy. In photocatalysis, light energizes a mineral,
triggering chemical reactions that result in the
breakdown of organic matter at the molecular level,
producing primarily carbon dioxide and water as by-
products.
NASA has studied the benefits of photocatalysis
for purifying water during space missions, and plant
growth chambers featuring photocatalytic scrubbers
have flown on multiple NASA missions, using the
photocatalytic process to preserve the space-grown
crops by eliminating the rot-inducing chemical
ethylene. (The scrubber technology resulted in a
unique air purifier, featured in Spinoff 2009, now
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preserving produce and sanitizing operating rooms
on Earth.)
Photocatalytic materials studied as part of a
NASA activities were investigated for multiple
applications, including protecting infrastructures
against unexpected threats. The materials technology
developed has future promising application, not only
to keep surfaces clean, but potentially germ free. The
photocatalytic materials to provide benefits for down
to Earth applications, as well. Maintenance costs
associated with keeping buildings and facilities clean
requires high costs and efforts, and the photocatalytic
materials have been tested as a valid and potential
solution for reducing these maintenance costs.
Among the technologies selected for this purpose is
a new approach to titanium dioxide-based
photocatalysis. Titanium dioxide is a common
compound such as found in paint to suntan lotion to
food coloring, and acts as a photocatalyst when
exposed to ultraviolet light. Common methods of
incorporating titanium dioxide involve melting or
mixing the compound into building materials, or
applying it with solvent-based carriers like paint.
With these methods, however, the nanoparticles of
titanium dioxide clump together, reducing their
exposed surface area and thus their exposure to light.
Much of the compound ends up buried in the building
material, providing no benefit. A Space Technology
oriented company, PURETi devised a liquid-based
method of growing nanocrystals of highly
photoactive titanium dioxide, which are suspended in
a highly adhesive and durable water-based solution.
To study the effectiveness of the technology,
PURETi’s solution is applied to building surfaces
and monitored any changes through standard
photography as well as remote sensing technology
that measured the surfaces’ spectral reflectance—
how much they reflect light. The research showed
that the coated surfaces maintained the clean, white
state seen when they were initially painted, from an
analytical perspective, it was also demonstrated that
the surfaces that were photocatalytically coated
maintained higher reflectance values, when
compared to the uncoated surfaces. There is less dirt
build up on the photocatalytically treated surfaces
[11].
5 Example of Space Application
Derived Climate-Smart Agriculture
5.1 Sensor Data Used for Smart Farming Using aerospace engineering analysis techniques,
tests have been carried out at National Aerospace
Research Laboratory in the Netherlands (NLR) on
facilitating higher yields for the potato crop for the
farmers participating in the project. Although these
farmers know very well their land and crops,
information on how well their crop is growing using
such technology will be of interest. By reference to
data known on the crops during the previous month,
the farmer can use the aerospace engineering based
data to help determine the reasons behind the growth
deficiency, if any.
Figure 6. Fields of application of wireless sensor networks,
adapted from OECD [12].
In the Netherlands, the NLR Smart Farming
integrates freely accessible satellite data and other
data, such as satellite data from the Netherlands
Space Office (NSO), data pertaining to terrain
heights, water‐level data from the national water
agencies, annual land crop records, soil maps, drone
data, meteorological data, and data from the
vegetation and soil scanners affixed to tractors.
This massive amount of data is compiled in a web
application, wherein the information can be easily
accessed and compared. A combination maps, for
example, maps that combine the organic matter
content in a parcel’s soil and the health of the
vegetation, has been test-produced.
In this web application, agricultural advisers and
farmers can combine data to gain new insights. Such
SmartFarming efforts have been carried out by NLR
in cooperation with the province of Flevoland, the
Noordoostpolder municipality and LTO, and in
collaboration with SME companies from the region.
The optimum methods for using large, heterogeneous
data and imagery (big data) are still in the
experimental stage. Therefore the SmartFarming
project is carried out by NLR as part of SensorWorld,
an initiative to deploy sensors used in aerospace
engineering for other sectors, such as agriculture,
urban development, energy, and critical
infrastructure monitoring [14-16]. An example of
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fields of application of wireless sensor to user
network networks in a Climate-Smart system is
shown in Figure 6. This figure exhibits some of the
most important fields of application. The upper part
shows fields of application that have a high potential
to undertake environmental challenges and decrease
CO2 emissions, such as Climate-Smart activities. The
lower part shows other further interesting fields of
application.
5.2 Crops: Rice Production Systems Rice is fundamental for food security since about half
of the world population, with approximately three
billion people consume rice every day [2, 8],
including many of the poorest and most
undernourished in Asia. Approximately 144 million
ha of land is cultivated under rice each year. The
waterlogged and warm soils of rice paddies make this
production system a large emitter of methane. Rice
production is and will be affected by changes in
climate. Irregular rainfall, drier spells in the wet
season (damaging young plants), drought and floods
are all having an effect on yields. This has also caused
outbreaks of pests and diseases, with large losses of
crops and harvested products. Peng et al [17] have
analyzed 6 years of data from 227 irrigated rice farms
in six major rice-growing countries in Asia, which
produces more than 90 percent of the world's rice. It
was found that rising temperatures, especially at
night, cause a severe effect on yields which results in
losses of harvests in some locations in the order of 10
-20 percent. A number of methods and practices are
being adopted to face such challenges. One example
is adapted in the production by changing farm
management techniques, date of planting and
cropping patterns. Other method utilizes a more
integrated approach to rice paddy irrigation and
fertilizer application which was found to
substantially reduce emissions. The use of
ammonium sulphate supplements have also been
used to promote soil microbial activity and reduce
methanogens.
5.3 Crops: Conservation Agriculture Conservation Agriculture (CA) involves farming
practices with three key characteristics: (1) minimal
mechanical soil disturbance (hence no tillage and
direct seeding); (2) maintenance of carbon-rich
organic matter covering and feeding the soil (e.g.
straw and/or other crop residues including cover
crops); and (3) rotations of crops including trees
which could include nitrogen-fixing legumes. There
are currently about 8 percent of global arable
cropland worldwide, and the area increases by about
6 million hectares per year [18]. Global arable
cropland covers all agro-ecologies and ranges from
small to large farms. CA offers climate change
adaptation and mitigation solutions while improving
food security through sustainable production
intensification and enhanced productivity of resource
use. By appropriate management of soil fertility and
organic matter, and improvement of the efficiency of
nutrient inputs, production can be enhanced with
proportionally less fertilizers. Energy use and
emissions can be reduced by burning of crop
residues. In addition, it helps sequester carbon in soil.
Avoidance of tillage minimizes occurrence of net
losses of carbon dioxide by microbial respiration and
oxidation of the soil organic matter and builds soil
structure and biopores through soil biota and roots.
Conservation Agriculture also contributes to
adaptation to climate change by reducing crop
vulnerability. The protective soil cover of leaves,
stems and stalks from the previous crop shields the
soil surface from heat, wind and rain, keeps the soil
cooler and reduces moisture losses by evaporation.
CA thus offers opportunities for climate change
adaptation and mitigation solutions, while improving
food security through sustainable production
intensification and enhanced productivity of resource
use [19]. These are just a few illustrative examples of
Climate Smart Agriculture, which can be assisted by
the use of Space Technology derived monitoring
system and/ or technologies.
5.4 Precision Agriculture Wireless
Network Monitoring System A well-known and primary example of Space
Application Derived Climate-Smart Agriculture. A
field signals monitoring system with wireless sensor
network (WSN) which also integrated an SoC
platform (System on a Chip) and Zigbee (high-level
communication protocols used to create personal area
networks built from small, low-power digital radios)
wireless network technologies can be applied. The
designed system is constituted by three parts which
include field-environment signals sensing units,
transceiver module and web-site unit. The acquisition
sensors for field signals comprise an MCU as the
front-end processing device, and several amplifier
circuits to process and convert signals of field
parameter into digital data. A Zigbee module can be
used to transmit digital data to the SoC platform with
wireless manner (Lin et al [20 ]). An SoC platform is
used as a Web server to process field signals.
Advances in wireless communications technology
have come up with small, low-power, and low-cost
sensors. Accordingly, sensor networks can be
developed to construct and control these sensor
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nodes, which have sensing, data processing,
communication and control capabilities.
Collecting information from these sensor nodes is
routed to a sink node via different types of wireless
communication approaches.
Figure 7 shows the architecture of the wireless-
network monitoring system proposed by Lin et al
[20] that includes sensors unit, Zigbee transceivers,
an MCU, an SoC platform, and Web server.
Figure 7: A wireless field signals monitoring system
configuration possibility, reproduced from Lin et al [20]
Lin et al proposed a wireless sensor networks WSN
to monitor field signals for precision agriculture as
shown in Figure 8, in which every field was
considered as an interested area for the localized
algorithm in distributed fault detection.
Figure 8: Field signals monitoring system in the precision
agriculture based on wireless network and Internet,
adapted from Lin et al [20]
6 Opportunities and Challenges
Associated with Climate-Smart
Agriculture Offered by Other Novel
Technologies
6.1 Climate Smart Agriculture
Mechanization Using Robotics Challenged by the need for mechanized monitoring,
pruning, thinning, and even picking produce as
alternative to declining number of human workforce,
novel approach is to utilize available information
technologies through the use of more intelligent
machines to reduce and target energy. In addition,
such approach is capable to improve efficiency for
climate smart agriculture. A new generation of
equipment is available for climate smart and
precision agriculture. The advent of autonomous
system architectures gives us the opportunity to
develop a complete new range of agricultural
equipment based on small smart machines that can do
the right thing, in the right place, at the right time in
the right way [21]. Robotic agriculture is offered by
smart machines.
Figure 97. Example of Climate Smart Robotic
Application. (Left) Portal crop scouting platform; (Right)
Sub canopy robot ISAAC2 built by a student team from
Hohenheim University (adapted from [20]).
For example, driverless tractors have been
developed in the past but further improvements are
necessary to improve their capability to adapt to more
complex real situations and environment, much like
a production line. Smarter machines that are
intelligent to work in an unmodified or semi natural
environment are required. To cite an example, the
portal robot shown in Figure 9, has been extensively
modified and rebuilt and has been used to provide
automated crop surveys. A range of sensors have
been fitted to measure crop nutrient status and stress
(multi spectral response), visible images (pan
chromatic), weed species and weed density.
Other robotic applications may address crop
scouting, weed mapping, weeding, micro spraying,
irrigation, and selective harvesting. The present
discussion serves to illustrate a vision of some
aspects of automated crop production for enhanced
efficiency. The development concept and
incrementally progressive process may require a
paradigm shift in climate smart agriculture.
7 GPS Technology for Climate-Smart
Agriculture GPS technology already available in smartphones
may be utilized to determine when users should water
their crops by estimating how much water the plants
Advances in Energy and Environmental Science and Engineering
ISBN: 978-1-61804-338-2 174
are using each day and factoring in area rainfall
totals, via connection with the closest weather
station. Topographic map of potato crop performance
can be determined by using Arc GIS 9.3 software
[22]. Precision farming is a developed system of
agricultural management which includes
development of management’s technical system with
the centrality of knowledge and main objective of
profit optimization. One of the most effective
methods for obtaining and collecting the observations
in precision farming is the use of Global Positioning
System (GPS). Information obtained based on GPS
can be entered in Geographical Information System
(GIS) environment and carry out required processes
with other topographic data. Based on obtained
results, the crop yield is reduced by increasing the
soil compaction which means the tillage should be
done appropriately and unnecessary traffic of
agricultural machinery that increases soil compaction
have to be prevented [22]. This is just one example
of the utilization of GIS, Space Based Remote
Sensing data and GIS for climate smart agriculture.
By drawing topographic maps, data can be
compared with each other in a higher level of
precision and speed and the information from
different points of the field can be obtained which has
an important role in the management of precision
agriculture. Methods to generate information about
the resources, with an emphasis on how recent
innovations in remote sensing fit with sustainable
land management methods, and to assess resources
may be obtained by the use of remote sensing and
GIS. The use of remote sensing and GIS help
contribute in generating policy, providing
information and ensuring participation by all
stakeholders [23].
7.1 Drones for Climate-Smart Agriculture Relatively cheap agricultural drones with advanced
sensors and imaging capabilities are giving farmers
new ways to increase yields and reduce crop damage.
Drones, as exhibited in Figure 8, can be used to take
pictures and alert farmers to problems not visible
from ground level, like fungal infestations. For
farmers, however, the machines have the capacity to
serve as an important eye in the sky. Cameras
strapped to drones allow growers to closely monitor
their crops, root out pests and ensure that their water
is being used efficiently. This low-altitude view
(from a few meters above the plants to around 120
meters, which is the regulatory ceiling in the United
States for unmanned aircraft operating without
special clearance from the Federal Aviation
Administration) gives a perspective that farmers have
rarely had before.
Figure 8. An impression of Agricultural Drone / Smart
RoboFlight System images [23, 24].
Compared with satellite imagery, it’s much cheaper
and offers higher resolution. Because it’s taken under
the clouds, it is unobstructed and available anytime.
It’s also much cheaper than crop imaging with a
manned aircraft.
The economic benefits drones for climate smart
agriculture and its related and promising
opportunities can be deduced from the Statistics
given by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle
Systems International (AUVSI) 2013 Report [24]
which implied a market projection of more than
$13.6 billion in the first three years and $82.1 billion
between 2015 and 2025, and forecasted generation of
more than 34,000 manufacturing jobs, more than
70,000 new jobs in the first three years and an
anticipated 103,776 new jobs by 2025.
8 Summary: Challenges and
Opportunities in Climate-Smart
Agriculture The challenges and opportunities in Climate-Smart
Agriculture, as elaborated and discussed in previous
section, can thus be summarized as exhibited in Table
2.
Advances in Energy and Environmental Science and Engineering
ISBN: 978-1-61804-338-2 175
Table 2. Overall Thematic Summary of Climate-Smart
Agriculture.
9 Concluding Remarks Climate-Smart Agriculture, which is a very
significant part of the solution for both Climate
Change mitigation and Sustainable Agriculture, has
been elaborated to practical extent, and translated
into some of their constitutive elements. The
objective of the elaboration is to review the
overriding circumstances involving international and
UN-sponsored initiatives in establishing climate-
smart resources management, to identify supporting
global initiatives and macro policies in seeking
improvements in people’s food and nutrition
security, and accordingly, to exemplify specific
techniques and technologies for the implementation
of Climate-Smart Agriculture. Macro and micro
aspects of Climate-Smart Agriculture has been
elaborated to the extent that policy, smart-farming
technique and space technology derived techniques
and related ones can be outlined to provide insight
into their setting and benefits.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Universiti Putra
Malaysia (UPM) for granting Research University
Grant Scheme (RUGS) No.9378200, and the
Ministry of Higher Education Grants ERGS:
5527088 and FRGS:5524250, under which the
present research is carried out.
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