IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v190y2021ics0308521x21000391.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Design of a Soil-based Climate-Smartness Index (SCSI) using the trend and variability of yields and soil organic carbon

Author

Listed:
  • Arenas-Calle, Laura N.
  • Ramirez-Villegas, Julian
  • Whitfield, Stephen
  • Challinor, Andrew J.

Abstract

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has had an increasing role in the agricultural policy arena, as it aims to address climate change mitigation, adaptation and food security goals in an integrated way. In regions where agriculture has been constrained because of soil degradation and climate change, CSA aims to implement soil-based strategies that restore soil function and increase carbon storage. The extent to which such strategies succeed in achieving mitigation, adaptation and productivity goals is referred to as climate-smartness. The co-evolution of yield and Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) over the years presents a proxy for the trade-off between productivity, soil fertility and carbon sequestration. Yield and SOC are widely monitored, analysed and used to inform CSA planning. Yet their analysis is often conducted separately and for a small number of years, which neglects long-term soil fertility dynamics and their impact on crops. Given the absence of integrated climate-smartness metrics to capture the trade-offs and synergies between SOC and yield, we present a soil-based Climate-Smartness Index (SCSI). The SCSI is computed using normalized indicators of trend and variability of annual changes on yield and SOC data. The SCSI was calculated for a set of published experiments that compared Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices with conventional management. The CA treatments scored higher SCSI during the first 5 years of evaluation as compared to conventional management. Analysis of the temporal dynamics of climate-smartness indicated that minimum SCSI values typically occurred before 5 years after the start of the experiment, indicating potential trade-offs between SOC and yield. Conversely, SCSI values peaked between 5 and 10 years. After 20 years, the SCSI tended towards zero, as substantial changes in either SOC or yield are no longer evidenced. The SCSI can be calculated for annual crops under any soil management and at different time periods, providing a consistent metric for climate-smartness across both practices and time.

Suggested Citation

  • Arenas-Calle, Laura N. & Ramirez-Villegas, Julian & Whitfield, Stephen & Challinor, Andrew J., 2021. "Design of a Soil-based Climate-Smartness Index (SCSI) using the trend and variability of yields and soil organic carbon," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:190:y:2021:i:c:s0308521x21000391
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X21000391
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103086?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hammond, James & Fraval, Simon & van Etten, Jacob & Suchini, Jose Gabriel & Mercado, Leida & Pagella, Tim & Frelat, Romain & Lannerstad, Mats & Douxchamps, Sabine & Teufel, Nils & Valbuena, Diego & va, 2017. "The Rural Household Multi-Indicator Survey (RHoMIS) for rapid characterisation of households to inform climate smart agriculture interventions: Description and applications in East Africa and Central ," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 225-233.
    2. Leslie Lipper & David Zilberman, 2018. "A Short History of the Evolution of the Climate Smart Agriculture Approach and Its Links to Climate Change and Sustainable Agriculture Debates," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Leslie Lipper & Nancy McCarthy & David Zilberman & Solomon Asfaw & Giacomo Branca (ed.), Climate Smart Agriculture, pages 13-30, Springer.
    3. Shirsath, Paresh B. & Aggarwal, P.K. & Thornton, P.K. & Dunnett, A., 2017. "Prioritizing climate-smart agricultural land use options at a regional scale," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 174-183.
    4. Thornton, Philip K. & Whitbread, Anthony & Baedeker, Tobias & Cairns, Jill & Claessens, Lieven & Baethgen, Walter & Bunn, Christian & Friedmann, Michael & Giller, Ken E. & Herrero, Mario & Howden, Mar, 2018. "A framework for priority-setting in climate smart agriculture research," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 161-175.
    5. Schneider, Uwe A. & Kumar, Pushpam, 2008. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Agriculture," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 23(1), pages 1-5.
    6. Uwe A. Schneider & Pete Smith, 2008. "Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation and Emission Intensities in Agriculture," Working Papers FNU-164, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Jul 2008.
    7. Pushpam Kumar & Uwe A. Schneider, 2008. "Greenhouse gas emission mitigation through agriculture," Working Papers FNU-155, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Feb 2008.
    8. Leslie Lipper & Nancy McCarthy & David Zilberman & Solomon Asfaw & Giacomo Branca (ed.), 2018. "Climate Smart Agriculture," Natural Resource Management and Policy, Springer, number 978-3-319-61194-5, March.
    9. Matteo Mazziotta, Adriano Pareto, 2013. "Methods For Constructing Composite Indices: One For All Or All For One?," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 67(2), pages 67-80, April-Jun.
    10. Kaczan, David & Arslan, Aslihan & Lipper, Leslie, 2013. "Climate-Smart Agriculture? A review of current practice of agroforestry and conservation agriculture in Malawi and Zambia," ESA Working Papers 288985, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    11. Mwongera, Caroline & Shikuku, Kelvin M. & Twyman, Jennifer & Läderach, Peter & Ampaire, Edidah & Van Asten, Piet & Twomlow, Steve & Winowiecki, Leigh A., 2017. "Climate smart agriculture rapid appraisal (CSA-RA): A tool for prioritizing context-specific climate smart agriculture technologies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 192-203.
    12. Pollesch, N.L. & Dale, V.H., 2016. "Normalization in sustainability assessment: Methods and implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 195-208.
    13. Notenbaert, An & Pfeifer, Catherine & Silvestri, Silvia & Herrero, Mario, 2017. "Targeting, out-scaling and prioritising climate-smart interventions in agricultural systems: Lessons from applying a generic framework to the livestock sector in sub-Saharan Africa," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 153-162.
    14. Atanu Mukherjee & Rattan Lal, 2014. "Comparison of Soil Quality Index Using Three Methods," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    15. Christian Thierfelder & Pauline Chivenge & Walter Mupangwa & Todd S. Rosenstock & Christine Lamanna & Joseph X. Eyre, 2017. "How climate-smart is conservation agriculture (CA)? – its potential to deliver on adaptation, mitigation and productivity on smallholder farms in southern Africa," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(3), pages 537-560, June.
    16. Salvatore Greco & Alessio Ishizaka & Menelaos Tasiou & Gianpiero Torrisi, 2019. "On the Methodological Framework of Composite Indices: A Review of the Issues of Weighting, Aggregation, and Robustness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 61-94, January.
    17. Jussi Lankoski & Ada Ignaciuk & Franck Jésus, 2018. "Synergies and trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation and agricultural productivity: A synthesis report," OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers 110, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amadu, Festus O. & McNamara, Paul E. & Davis, Kristin E., 2021. "Soil health and grain yield impacts of climate resilient agriculture projects: Evidence from southern Malawi," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thornton, Philip K. & Whitbread, Anthony & Baedeker, Tobias & Cairns, Jill & Claessens, Lieven & Baethgen, Walter & Bunn, Christian & Friedmann, Michael & Giller, Ken E. & Herrero, Mario & Howden, Mar, 2018. "A framework for priority-setting in climate smart agriculture research," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 161-175.
    2. Stan Selbonne & Loïc Guindé & François Causeret & Pierre Chopin & Jorge Sierra & Régis Tournebize & Jean-Marc Blazy, 2023. "How to Measure the Performance of Farms with Regard to Climate-Smart Agriculture Goals? A Set of Indicators and Its Application in Guadeloupe," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    3. Dunnett, A. & Shirsath, P.B. & Aggarwal, P.K. & Thornton, P. & Joshi, P.K. & Pal, B.D. & Khatri-Chhetri, A. & Ghosh, J., 2018. "Multi-objective land use allocation modelling for prioritizing climate-smart agricultural interventions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 381(C), pages 23-35.
    4. Kinga Biró & Mária Szalmáné Csete, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility in agribusiness: climate-related empirical findings from Hungary," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5674-5694, April.
    5. Victor O. Abegunde & Ajuruchukwu Obi, 2022. "The Role and Perspective of Climate Smart Agriculture in Africa: A Scientific Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-15, February.
    6. Hari Wahyu Wijayanto & Kai-An Lo & Hery Toiba & Moh Shadiqur Rahman, 2022. "Does Agroforestry Adoption Affect Subjective Well-Being? Empirical Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in East Java, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-10, August.
    7. Zhen, Wei & Qin, Quande & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Spatio-temporal patterns of energy consumption-related GHG emissions in China's crop production systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 274-284.
    8. Huarui Gong & Jing Li & Zhen Liu & Yitao Zhang & Ruixing Hou & Zhu Ouyang, 2022. "Mitigated Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Cropping Systems by Organic Fertilizer and Tillage Management," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Oliver Lazarus & Sonali McDermid & Jennifer Jacquet, 2021. "The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-21, March.
    10. David Bryngelsson & Fredrik Hedenus & Daniel J. A. Johansson & Christian Azar & Stefan Wirsenius, 2017. "How Do Dietary Choices Influence the Energy-System Cost of Stabilizing the Climate?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    11. Soy-Massoni, Emma & Langemeyer, Johannes & Varga, Diego & Sáez, Marc & Pintó, Josep, 2016. "The importance of ecosystem services in coastal agricultural landscapes: Case study from the Costa Brava, Catalonia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 43-52.
    12. Telmo José Mendes & Diego Silva Siqueira & Eduardo Barretto Figueiredo & Ricardo de Oliveira Bordonal & Mara Regina Moitinho & José Marques Júnior & Newton La Scala Jr., 2021. "Soil carbon stock estimations: methods and a case study of the Maranhão State, Brazil," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16410-16427, November.
    13. Ancuta Isbasoiu & Pierre-Alain Jayet & Stéphane De Cara, 2021. "Increasing food production and mitigating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union: impacts of carbon pricing and calorie production targeting," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 409-440, April.
    14. Amanda Silva‐Parra & Juan Manuel Trujillo‐González & Eric C. Brevik, 2021. "Greenhouse gas balance and mitigation potential of agricultural systems in Colombia: A systematic analysis," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(3), pages 554-572, June.
    15. Chen, Jiandong & Cheng, Shulei & Song, Malin, 2018. "Changes in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions of the agricultural sector in China from 2005 to 2013," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 748-761.
    16. Wang, Guangshuai & Liang, Yueping & Zhang, Qian & Jha, Shiva K. & Gao, Yang & Shen, Xiaojun & Sun, Jingsheng & Duan, Aiwang, 2016. "Mitigated CH4 and N2O emissions and improved irrigation water use efficiency in winter wheat field with surface drip irrigation in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 403-407.
    17. Saw Min & Martin Rulík, 2020. "Comparison of Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Fluxes between Conventional and Conserved Irrigated Rice Paddy Fields in Myanmar," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    18. Connor, Melanie & de Guia, Annalyn H. & Quilloy, Reianne & Van Nguyen, Hung & Gummert, Martin & Sander, Bjoern Ole, 2020. "When climate change is not psychologically distant – Factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable farming practices in the Mekong river Delta of Vietnam," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    19. Franco-Luesma, Samuel & Álvaro-Fuentes, Jorge & Plaza-Bonilla, Daniel & Arrúe, José Luis & Cantero-Martínez, Carlos & Cavero, José, 2019. "Influence of irrigation time and frequency on greenhouse gas emissions in a solid-set sprinkler-irrigated maize under Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 303-311.
    20. Collins-Sowah, Peron A., 2018. "Theoretical conception of climate-smart agriculture," Working Papers of Agricultural Policy WP2018-02, University of Kiel, Department of Agricultural Economics, Chair of Agricultural Policy.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:190:y:2021:i:c:s0308521x21000391. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.