Transforming Crop Production in Times of Crisis: The Opportunity of Climate-Smart Agriculture

Climate change presents a significant and pressing challenge in our era, with rising temperatures, increased radiation, unpredictable rainfall, and more frequent extreme weather events posing a severe threat to food systems. 

Climate change is already taking a toll on agriculture and exposing the vulnerability of agricultural production systems, manifesting through a range of detrimental effects. Droughts, heatwaves, and unpredictable shifts in rainfall patterns are causing water scarcity and disrupting traditional growing seasons, ultimately leading to reduced crop yields and lower-quality harvests. Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can impede plant growth, disrupt reproductive processes, and heighten susceptibility to pests and diseases. Moreover, climate change is shifting crop cultivation areas globally. Italy is witnessing the cultivation of crops like mangoes and avocados, enabled by the warming climate. However, this expansion of tropical fruits faces challenges due to their high-water demands combined with decreased rainfall in the region. Wine-growing regions – one of the most temperature sensitive crops, are also moving northward in Europe and North America, with countries like Canada and the UK emerging as new players in the industry. Conversely, Russia has capitalized on milder winters, becoming the top wheat producer through increased winter wheat planting, and while temperatures could boost wheat production in Germany, they could also lead to an important decline in Egypt, a significant wheat consumer. These challenges highlight the complexity of climate change's impact and underscore the need for adaptive strategies and sustainable practices to ensure food production in a changing climate. 

Climate-Smart Agriculture is an approach that integrates climate change adaptation, mitigation, and productivity in agricultural practices. It aims to increase agricultural productivity while reducing the environmental impact and enhancing the resilience of farming systems. It acknowledges the critical interconnectedness between mitigating and adapting to climate change and promoting sustainable agricultural production. 

In this context, agri-biotech manufacturers have a responsibility to innovate and develop tools that enable farmers to increase their resilience and adapt to these challenges. Recognizing the urgent demand for effective products, Futureco Bioscience has introduced on the market an innovative integrated solution: the Climate Rescue Pack, specifically designed to bolster crop resilience against climate change. This innovative pack combines three cutting-edge products: Hydromaat, Fitomaat, and UltraV, each offering unique benefits to farmers who aim to protect their crops from the changing climate adverse effects.

Water resources management and hydric stress mitigation

Today, most countries are placing unprecedented pressure on water resources. The global population is growing fast, and estimates show that with current practices, the world will face a 40% shortfall between forecast demand and available supply of water by 2030. Furthermore, chronic water scarcity, hydrological uncertainty, and extreme weather events are perceived as some of the biggest threats to global prosperity and stability. Climate change will worsen the situation by altering hydrological cycles, making water more unpredictable and increasing the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts.

To strengthen water security against this backdrop of increasing demand, water scarcity, growing uncertainty, greater extremes, and fragmentation challenges, stakeholders will need to invest in water resources management and plant’s water stress mitigation, which are critical for ensuring water security and sustainable development. 

Hydromaat, an integral component of Futureco Bioscience Climate Rescue Pack, harnesses the power of microbial biostimulants and offers natural protection against water stress in plants. Utilizing a proprietary strain of Ensifer meliloti, Hydromaat helps farmers to manage reduced irrigation water availability and unpredictable or scarce rainfall patterns, maintaining plant health and crop productivity while preventing hydric stress. This innovative solution provides a lifeline to farmers grappling with droughts and water shortages, maximizing crop performance even in water-scarce conditions.

Productivity support during plants hydric stress 

Droughts are the leading driver of production risk in agriculture. Although flooding, early frosts, pests, and other risk factors pose major challenges to farmers, no other source of production risk is as significant as drought in terms of lost agricultural production and income. A major drought can heavily reduce crop yields and lead farmers to cut back planted or harvested acreage and increase costs of production inputs such as irrigation water. 

Any action that reduces drought vulnerability increases resilience. Farmers can make small but meaningful improvements in their drought resilience through investments and actions that enhance soil moisture-holding capacity. A variety of management practices that increase soil organic matter while reducing soil-moisture loss—such as no-till or reduced tillage, use of cover crops, and conservation crop rotations—may help farms adapt to drought risk. Also, biostimulants have displayed a tremendous potential for mitigating the abiotic stressors that climate change has exacerbated without compromising crop production, productivity, and quality. They represent a potential new way to aid in hydric stress, reducing field productivity losses. They are compatible with the eco-friendly philosophy because most of the compounds used are from natural sources and easily degraded in soil. 

Futureco Bioscience’s Fitomaat, within the Climate Rescue Pack, contains a high percentage of glycine-betaine (80%) and proline (10%). These osmolytes together with other components present in the formulation, enable crops to overcome and recover from hydric stress, preserving yield and maintaining crop quality. By bolstering plants' natural coping mechanisms, Fitomaat acts as a formidable aid in combatting hydric stress, empowering farmers to overcome the adversities posed by drought conditions.

Crop protection from solar radiation

Plants harvest energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates used by the plant to grow stems, leaves, roots, and fruits. But if the plants are exposed to too much sun, when the air temperature rises above 30°C to 35°C during the day, plants absorb more energy than they can handle, and photosynthesis is likely to decrease and generate reactive species of oxygen that can destroy the plant and in turn crop yield potential.

The Climate Rescue Pack's final component, UltraV, is an innovative crop sun protectant biostimulant. By shielding crops against damage caused by solar radiation, UltraV helps maintain the delicate balance between light energy and carbon fixation. Additionally, this product reduces surface temperatures, keeps stomata open for transpiration, and ensures optimal photosynthesis levels, preventing stress conditions even in the face of extreme weather circumstances.

The agricultural sector is being increasingly viewed as a key for implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation measures that can contribute to reaching climate targets. Furthermore, crop resilience to the changing climate is an imperative goal for the agricultural industry and food production.

Climate Smart Agriculture has emerged as an indispensable approach to overcome the pressing challenges that modern farming practices face today, while ensuring sustainable food production and mitigating the far-reaching impacts of climate change. Within this realm, Futureco Bioscience's Climate Rescue Pack emerges as a game-changing solution, empowering and equipping farmers with the tools necessary to confront the challenges of a changing climate head-on. With Hydromaat, Fitomaat, and UltraV, this comprehensive pack help farmers to enhance water management, overcome hydric stress, and protect crops from solar radiation. 

By investing in the Climate Rescue Pack, distributors, dealers, and farmers are investing in scientific innovation, industrial expertise, and agricultural excellence, and moving forward towards food security and a more resilient agricultural future. As humanity navigates the labyrinthine challenges presented by an evolving climate, Futureco Bioscience is committed to bridging the fields of agronomy and biotechnology, and their Climate Rescue Pack is poised to revolutionize the way we cultivate crops and face the climate change.

This article was originally published in the magazine 2023 Biologicals Special.