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Revolutionizing Crops and Soil Resources’ Resilience to Climate Change: A Case for Best-Fit Agronomic Practices in Low and High Input Systems

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Agriculture, Livestock Production and Aquaculture

Abstract

Climate change is the current and future threat to sustainable crop production and soil resilience in rain-fed agricultural systems. The high climatic variation, especially rainfall and temperature, has rendered agricultural productivity a high risk venture. Practices and technologies that abate the impact of climate change on agricultural production systems are thus imperative. There are several empirical studies of best-fit agronomic practices that have shown massive potential in curbing the devastating effects of climate change. However, these studies are isolated and do not clearly bring out how various agronomic practices cushion farmers against climate change. Consequently, little is known on how best-fit agronomic practices may be tailor-made to reduce and/or eliminate the impact of climate change in crop production systems. The aim of this chapter is thus to document and contextualize how various agronomic (herein referred to as best-fit) practices tackle climate change. It also looks at the policy and legal framework that strengthen the capacity of the practices. From the detailed literature, best-fit agronomic practices include: integrated soil fertility management, suitable tillage method, cereal-legume crop rotation/intercropping, greenhouse production, genetic modification, and soil and water conservation measures. Though the current policy and legal frameworks regulating the aforementioned practices are weak, there is an urgent need for them to be strengthened, farmer-sensitive, and implementable. There is therefore the need for up-scaling these practices by strengthening institutional support and adopting a bottom-up extension services approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Science and Technology, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

    Erick Oduor Otieno & Joseph Onyango Gweyi

  2. Department of Land and Water Management, School of Agriculture, University of Embu, Embu, Kenya

    Nathan Okoth Oduor

Authors
  1. Erick Oduor Otieno
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  2. Joseph Onyango Gweyi
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  3. Nathan Okoth Oduor
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Correspondence to Erick Oduor Otieno .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, India

    Arvind Kumar

  2. Wildlife Biology, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, India

    Pavan Kumar

  3. Directorate of Extension Education, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, India

    S. S. Singh

  4. Geospatial Information and Technologies for the Intelligent and Integrative Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia

    Bambang Hendro Trisasongko

  5. Department of Geography, Kumaun University, Nainital, India

    Meenu Rani

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Otieno, E.O., Gweyi, J.O., Oduor, N.O. (2022). Revolutionizing Crops and Soil Resources’ Resilience to Climate Change: A Case for Best-Fit Agronomic Practices in Low and High Input Systems. In: Kumar, A., Kumar, P., Singh, S.S., Trisasongko, B.H., Rani, M. (eds) Agriculture, Livestock Production and Aquaculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93262-6_2

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