Low carbon agriculture: Objectives and policy pathways

The threat of long-term climate change has driven a number of international and national bodies to call for a re-direction of development pathways so that they are more resource efficient and use less carbon (C) in the form of fossil fuel per unit of economic growth and cause lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Agriculture is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of GHG emissions yet few authorities take account of this fact in their proposals and programmes for low C development. Hence this policy review examines the case for promoting strategies and policies for low C agricultural growth. Most of the policy and technological options that it considers have already been put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and others in the context of climate change mitigation, but constraints to their implementation have often been underestimated. This review re-assesses their potential contribution in the light of known bio-physical, socio-economic and institutional limitations. It concludes that there is a very strong case for greatly increasing the priority given to policies for low C growth which can be true win-win-win responses. Many of them are more cost-effective than the responses available to other sectors. They can be pro-poor and have other socio-economic benefits. They not only limit GHG emissions but also provide a range of other environmental and ecosystem benefits. However there can be significant barriers to implementation that must be overcome by national policies shaped to meet the needs of different farmer groups and agricultural systems.