SmartAgri article series: Natural resource management central to climate-resilient agriculture

by Prof Stephanie Midgley, stephaniem@elsenburg.com

Article 1

TThe Western Cape climate change response framework and implementation plan for the agricultural sector (SmartAgri plan) provides a roadmap for agriculture that is low-carbon and resilient to climate change. In this new series in AgriProbe, the SmartAgri plan is unpacked into its core elements, structured around four strategic focus areas (SFAs) (Figure 1). Some of the active projects led by the various programmes of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture (WCDoA), and additional priorities will be highlighted.

SFA1 covers the production system – viewed holistically and including the means of production (land/soil, water, energy, labour) – and the whole value chain. It is production-orientated and speaks to agriculture as an economic sector providing revenue and livelihoods, while caring for natural resources. The spatial focus is primarily the farm and the landscape that it operates in. The actors are the farmers themselves and the supply chain, with government being responsible for overall land-use and water planning.

This article highlights the first two objectives of SFA1:

Promote climate-smart soil and landuse management practices

Soil and land use are managed according to agri-ecological principles that take climate change into account:

• Increase the conservation agriculture (CA) adoption rate across all commodities and farming systems.

• Scale up promotion of soil fertility management best practice in cultivated lands.

The

Vision

Leading the Way to a Climate Resilient Agricultural Future for the Western Cape

Goal

To Equip Agriculture to Respond to Climate Change Risks and Opportunities Through Innovation, Leadership and United Strategic Action

Promote a climate-resilient low-carbon production system that is productive, competitive, equitable and ecologically sustainable across the value chain

Strengthen effective climate disaster risk reduction and management for agriculture

Strengthen monitoring and data and knowledge management and sharing, and lead strategic research regarding climate change and agriculture

STRATEGIC FOCUS AREAS 1 2 3 4

Ensure good co-operative governance and joint planning for effective climate change response implementation for agriculture

• Restore ecological infrastructure in vulnerable landscapes to improve landscape productivity and the climate resilience of ecosystem services, while creating jobs and supporting socioeconomic development.

• Integrate and optimise land-use planning at provincial and local level to protect agricultural land that holds long-term agricultural and food security value in the face of climate change.

For the first three activities, substantial progress has been made by agronomists in the WCDoA’s programme Research and Technology Development Services (RTDS), and the LandCare sub-programme within the programme Sustainable Resource Use and Management (SRUM). Personnel from extension and advisory services of the programme Agricultural Producer Support and Development (APSD) promote best practice CA and soil fertility management. However, much work still needs to be done across all the activities to scale them up to all parts of the province and all farming systems. Solving the challenges of climate-smart landuse planning must remain a priority.

Promote effective, efficient, and sustainable management and use of water

Water is managed and used sustainably and equitably in support of increased resilience to climate change:

• Manage and maintain agricultural water infrastructure to reduce water losses and risk, and investigate the feasibility of new water infrastructure in areas of greatest need under climate change.

• Strengthen equitable water access for agriculture through forward-thinking licensing that incorporates climate change.

• Increase effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural water use by promoting watersaving irrigation systems and scheduling, and the ever-increasing use of FruitLook;

• Promote sustainable and compliant groundwater use and management for agriculture through a better understanding of the groundwater system and safe abstraction rates, monitoring, and land management to increase infiltration.

• Strengthen integrated catchment management (including clearing of invasive alien species and riparian protection and rehabilitation) for increased water flow and flood attenuation, through job creation and farmer incentives.

• Enhance the quality of agricultural water use by reducing agriculturally generated pollution and strengthening natural water services provided by healthy ecosystems.

The Western Cape government has invested substantially in restoration and maintenance of critical agricultural water infrastructure in the Olifants River system.

Together with the national Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, the Ebenhaeser Irrigation Scheme of the West Coast district was commissioned on 12 June 2021. This provides water security to farmers (supported by APSD extension services) in a climatically challenging region, where reliable access to water is essential to increase agricultural production and sustainable jobs. The FruitLook webbased decision tool (SRUM) helps farmers to use water more efficiently and now covers most irrigation areas and many rain-fed farming areas. LandCare (SRUM) is scaling up its invasive alien vegetation clearing programme, and rehabilitating cleared areas using indigenous species, helping to increase water flow and quality. Groundwater use and management must receive further attention.

In the second article we will focus on climate-resilient on-farm technologies and genetic material for crops and livestock.

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