Put agri on the stage, say scientists

Are agricultural productivity and environmental conservation two separate issues? While that is what the big agricultural industry would claim, Britain’s chief scientist, John Beddington, along with an international group of scientists, have in their article in Science this month asked climate negotiators to stop ignoring agriculture.

Agriculture has been hovering just on the margins of climate change policy. While it is a fact that precise measurement of the climate impact of many industrial farming practices remains difficult and controversial, the overriding factor is that the indutry chooses to ignore any such consideration in the pursuit of profit. The U.S in particular has resisted any attempts to formalize the agricultural sector’s obligation to climate mitigation.

It is an irony that farming will be most affected by exacerbated climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that the frequency of extreme weather events will increase and have disastrous on agricultural yields. Yet, the effects of unsustainable agriculture on the weather remains ignored largely.

Greenhouse gases are released by land clearing, inappropriate fertilizer use, and other practices while agricultural run-off carries nitrogen which ends up in the atmosphere as potent nitrous oxide. When forest land is cleared for farming, land which earlier acted as a sponge during rains becomes a sluice, and floods rivers and surrounding areas! How often are practices to mitigate taken? Rarely.

Surely it is time to review farming practices?