to 1000mm

Best Practice Harvesting Techniques are formalised harvesting practices intended to reduce breakage and bruising of crops during collection and storage. These techniques minimise harvest losses and maintain the quality of the produce. To maximise this approach, factors such as moisture content, cleanness of the grain, colour, odour and potential pest infestation need to be considered during harvest periods. Considering each of these factors will increase grain value as quality standards are directly related to grain price. Harvesting can be performed manually or mechanically, with obvious cost implication of employing the latter.

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is a technique of restoring degraded land and monitoring restoration of the land involving the systematic regeneration and management of trees and shrubs from tree stumps, roots and seed. Degraded arid land often features left over indigenous plants, which if maintained and promoted to grow can improve pasture and crop lands while simultaneously encouraging re-growth of seeds, roots and shrubs. Key to this practice is the existence of living stumps, tree roots and seed that, if encouraged, will regrow. The land is protected from being completely cleared or further grazed and this allows trees to grow without disturbance. Once the stumps and trees start to grow, pruning and trimming of trees is required to allow space between trees and promote healthy long tree trunks. Once the trees have matured, intercropping can take place or livestock can be re-introduced to graze.

While requiring some investment in terms of effort, FMNR has climate smart advantages such as controlling rainfall/irrigation run-off, supporting water quality improvements, providing sources of timber or fodder, supporting habitant regeneration for pollinator insect species, acting as sun shade, and reducing soil erosion.

Agroforestry is a land management practice that combines the planting and management of trees and shrubs with crops and pasture, providing benefits of soil health, crop yields, resilience to climate change, biodiversity and economic opportunities. Agroforestry encompasses numerous practices, including silvo-pasture, agro-silvo cultural, and agro-silvo-pastural. One such successful agroforestry practice is silvo-pasture – the planting of trees and shrubs within livestock grazing pasture lands. Not to be confused with agrosilvopasture (combination of crops, shrubs/trees and livestock, silvopasture is the combination of trees and shrubs with pastural grazing land. The trees can be regularly or irregularly placed, and in addition to improving soil conditions in pasture lands, also provide production of protein-rich tree fodder for on farm feeding and for cut-and-carry fodder production. If growing larger species of tree, coppicing can also produce timber for building materials and firewood.

Boundary planting, also known as live fence planting, is a technique used to protect crops from the interference of people and animals that can disturb plant growth. Trees/shrubs are a good example of this approach as they can form a shield when planted along the boundaries of the garden or surrounding a planted field. The trees/shrubs act as wind break to shield plants against strong winds causing physical damage to plants themselves, or the removal of soil (erosion). Additional benefits include the use of branches for firewood or building materials, and the other parts of trees can be used as fodder, fruit or leave harvested for consumption, or for medicinal use. Tree/shrub spacing is critical, as trees that have dense canopies can conversely cause destructive down-drafts, negating the intended benefits. Boundary planting helps limit global warming by mitigating GHG emissions through reducing harmful gases such as, carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen.

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is an agro-ecological practice for increasing the productivity of irrigated rice cultivation by changing the management of water, plants, soil and nutrients. SRI promotes the growth of root systems, increases the abundance and diversity of soil organisms by keeping the soil moist but not flooded, and provides frequent aeration and conditioning of soil with organic matter. This agro-ecological practice stimulates plant growth by transplanting young seedlings, avoiding disturbance to roots and providing crops with wider spacing to encourage greater root and canopy growth. The agricultural methodology is based on well-founded agro-ecological principles which have been successfully adapted to upland rice and have shown increased productivity over current conventional planting practices.

Alternate wetting and drying also called intermittent flooding is a technique developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to control water consumption in rice fields (CGIAR 2014). This technology saves water throughout the year in areas of variable rainfall. It is designed as a pick-up water system in cases when water consumption is cut. Water levels are monitored and controlled by the removal of excess water, leaving enough water to sustain crops. Alternate wetting and drying reduces greenhouse gas emissions especially methane, which is emitted from flooded rice fields (FAO 2016). The drying phase helps to sustain and develop plant roots. Moreover, costs on fuel used for irrigation are reduced.

A permeable rock dam is a water harvesting technique where flooding rain water is collected in valley bases or other depressions to irrigate crops later/elsewhere, filling in gullies, controlling water flows, increasing crop production and reducing soil erosion.. Permeable rock dams are long and relatively shallow to reduce erosion while accumulating silt and distributing water. They comprise of long low rock walls with smooth crests so that water can spread to avoid overflow from the dam. However, this technology is site specific; it cannot be practiced in areas where there are no rocks/stones and means of transporting these building materials. The impoundment of silt prior to runoff entering a watercourse can be beneficiary to downstream users and can contribute to improved water quality in the catchment

The process of saving one’s own seed involves the collection of seeds from the best performing (most yield, largest size, early maturing or other desired traits, etc.) plants from one season to plant them in the next cropping season. The aim of this practice is to select seed from parent plants in the hope that desired characteristics are replicated in the next generation of plants. Seeds that have been selected will likely be adapted to local farming conditions including soil types and rainfall amounts. The seed most likely to carry intergenerational traits (size, colour, water use efficiency, and other biophysical traits) are open-pollinated (those plants pollinated by birds, insects, wind, etc.) seed varieties as they are cross-pollinated by the same type of crop. Different crops have different reproduction cycles with some species flowering or producing seeds annually, biennially or on a perennial basis. Thus, understanding seeding time is important for farmers aiming to save their own seeds. Almost as important as selecting the correct seeds is seed storage, which must be done correctly to avoid spoiling and losses. Seed saving is a cost-effective measure for farmers to employ and helps them avoid having to buy seeds at market on an annual basis. Seed trading or community seed banks provide a climate resilience strategy as they secure farmers access and availability of diverse, locally adapted crops and varieties while enhancing indigenous knowledge. Often crops from hybrid seeds or improved varieties do not generate viable seeds ensuring that seeds cannot be saved and must be purchased on an annual basis.

Selecting crop varieties is a key resilience strategy for farmers facing changing climatic conditions. There are two types of seed varieties: traditional varieties and improved varieties. Traditional varieties have been selected by farmers for their special characteristics and due to many years of selecting the strongest seeds over generations, they are generally adapted to local natural conditions. In some respects, these seeds increase the chance of getting a return on investment in stable environments, but are less likely to mitigate GHG emissions. Traditional crop varieties are usually selected by small scale farmers due to their relatively low cost and availability and can be saved and replanted for further growing seasons. Improved varieties are seeds that have been altered by scientific processes to incorporate desired characteristics using techniques such as following pure line breeding, classical breeding, hybridisation and molecular breeding. Desirable characteristics include higher yields, shorter growing seasons, drought resistance, salt tolerance, etc. Improved varieties are selected when facing adverse conditions such as higher temperatures and/or less predictable rainfall and normally result in the efficient use of water reducing use of energy for irrigation systems. While these seeds offer improvements they are usually commercial products and as a result can be expensive. Furthermore, as they are sold by seed companies availability is driven by demand. Most seed companies protect enhancements using  intellectual property rights that legally limit seed saving and replanting of seeds. In fact, many of these seed varieties have been designed to prevent plants to be reseeded. Thus, seed varieties afford farmers the opportunity to incorporate crops that can be planted to exploit their unique characteristics – traditional or improved, assisting farmers to grow crops that are resilient to changing climates to produce crops that are market-appropriate.

Weeds are any unwanted plant species that compete with crops for sunlight, water, nutrients, air and space, hindering crop growth and in some cases are even toxic to crop plants. Weed control measures can be applied in an integrated manner to help prevent the growth and spread of weeds in agricultural systems. An integrated weed management approach aims to restrict weed growth until a crop is well established and can outcompete weeds. This integrated approach includes biological, chemical, cultural and/or physical tactics to combat weed spread and growth and these practices can be more cost effective than herbicide applications. Integrated weed management is climate smart as it combines multiple climate smart practices that increase farmers resilience, limits GHG releases and increases productivity. Options for weed control include crop rotation, intercropping, cover crops (which can be used as green manure or mulch), mulching, seed-bed preparation, livestock grazing, seed/variety selection, mowing, and hand-weeding.

The application of integrated weed control is climate smart as it reduces herbicide application and reduction in machinery usage (i.e. through no-tillage practices).