Addressing the Global Emergency of Climate Change and Environmental Pollution

Themes

HomeThemes

Symposium objectives

The overarching themes of the symposium focus on ‘Bridging Science to Action’ by translating research into practical strategies for various stakeholders (e.g. farmers, advisors, and policymakers). This is achieved through integrated approaches, emphasising synergy across disciplines and scales associated with agricultural systems. The conference highlights innovation and technology, showcasing cutting-edge solutions for mitigating climate change, addressing adaptation constraints, and reducing environmental pollution. The approach addresses equity and inclusivity, covering all socio-economic dimensions of climate change and equitable access to solutions. A strong emphasis is placed on ecosystem services for resilience, recognising the indispensable role of healthy, productive and diverse ecosystems in supporting sustainable agriculture. The key aspects include (but are not limited to):

  • The development of integrated environmental solutions by addressing interconnected challenges with holistic strategies to achieve carbon-neutral farming.
  • The promotion of ecological resilience and sustainability by preserving agro-biodiversity and building adaptable, productive farming systems.
  • The creation of decision-support tools for informed, sustainable land use planning.
  • The identification of viable, socially accepted, and innovative options aligned with the circular bioeconomy and stakeholder needs.
  • The advancement of research to support evidence-based climate policies and their effective implementation.

The symposium aims to explore and develop innovative strategies that strike a balance between reducing environmental footprints and promoting sustainable agricultural systems in the face of climate change, ultimately generating actionable insights and solutions. The key sessions to submit abstracts for oral, PICO, and poster presentations are as follows:

Themes include:

Sustainable Crop Management Practices

Cropping systems can lead to soil degradation, biodiversity loss, pollution from agrochemicals, and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to poor land management and inappropriate farming practices. This session explores innovative practices crucial for mitigating climate change and ensuring long-term food security. The adoption of strategies such as conservation agriculture, which promotes minimal soil disturbance and residue retention, will be a key factor in enhancing soil health and carbon sequestration. Among others, for example, Precision and Regenerative Agriculture, utilising data-driven techniques, will be discussed for optimising resource use and minimising environmental impact. It will also highlight the benefits of diversified cropping systems and intercropping in reducing GHG emissions and offsetting. through carbon sequestration, while improving biodiversity. By fostering healthy soils, reducing dependence on synthetic inputs, and enhancing ecosystem services, these solutions will not only mitigate agriculture’s contribution to climate change but also ensure stable and sustainable food production for a growing global population under increasingly unpredictable environmental conditions. The session will focus on research into solutions for air, water, and soil pollution, primarily in arable cropping systems.

Back to top
Climate-Resilient Grassland Systems

Livestock grazing, along with fertiliser management, significantly affects soil health and contributes to agricultural GHG emissions and pollution through leaching, volatilisation, and runoff. With livestock accounting for about half of anthropogenic emissions, especially methane, projected increases in livestock numbers could raise manure production and methane emissions by around 60% by 2030. Sustainable grassland management is essential to reduce environmental pressures, requiring careful control of livestock numbers and fertiliser use. This session explores strategies for maintaining productive and sustainable grasslands (e.g. pastures, hay and silage), which dominate the total global agricultural area, and their interaction with a changing climate.

Strategies to enhance grassland resilience, such as adaptive grazing, rotational systems, and diverse forages, while examining both traditional livestock systems and non-livestock approaches for improving carbon storage, water retention, biodiversity, and overall ecosystem services, will be explored. There will be a focus on solutions to coupled air, water and soil pollution, in both grazed and ungrazed grassland systems for long-term food, fibre, and ecological stability.

Back to top
Innovations in Genetics for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

This session focuses on cutting-edge advances in plant and animal breeding that will be needed for global food security under a changing climate. We will delve into how genetic selection and engineering are developing climate-resilient crop varieties and livestock breeds. Solutions include enhancing tolerance to abiotic stresses like drought, heat, and salinity; improving nutrient use efficiency to reduce fertiliser-related GHG emissions; and breeding animals with lower enteric methane emissions.

Directly addressing agriculture’s dual role as both a contributor to and a victim of climate change will be an important consideration. By integrating genetic innovations with sustainable on-farm practices, we can foster systems that not only adapt to unpredictable conditions but actively mitigate GHG emissions, ensuring robust, environmentally sound, and productive agriculture for future generations.

Back to top
Agroforestry Systems for Ecosystem Services

Mixed farming systems are very popular in both developed and developing nations. This session investigates the potential synergy of integrating trees and diverse ecological elements into agricultural landscapes. We will examine various agroforestry practices, including silvoarable (trees with crops), silvopastoral (trees with grass + livestock), hedgerows/shelterbelts, farm gardens, and orchards. These systems offer multifaceted benefits, particularly for degraded agricultural lands, by enhancing climate change mitigation through increased carbon sequestration in biomass and soils and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They also support climate adaptation by providing shade, reducing wind erosion, improving water retention and nutrient cycling, and lowering methane production.

By merging productive agriculture with ecological restoration, agroforestry offers a holistic solution to environmental challenges, ensuring long-term sustainability, enhanced ecosystem services, and improved livelihoods, contributing to the global demand for food, meat and milk, under a changing climate. This session will focus on identifying technologies and approaches to reduce GHGs and pollution, emphasising the crucial role of applied research and how the integration of livestock can enhance system flexibility with added environmental benefits.

Back to top
Productive Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration

This session explores the strategies for safeguarding and revitalising Earth’s biological wealth, with an emphasis on agricultural landscapes. We examine how conserving and actively restoring biodiversity across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems directly underpins their productivity and resilience. This includes fostering genetic diversity in wild and cultivated species, restoring degraded habitats, and promoting ecological connectivity.

Biodiversity provides indispensable ecosystem services, from pollination and pest control to water purification and soil fertility, all of which are important for sustainable food production and human well-being. Under a changing climate, robust biodiversity measures can enhance ecosystem adaptability, offering natural solutions for carbon sequestration, GHG mitigation and environmental pollution reduction, and act as a buffer against extreme events. The solutions discussed will emphasise the integration of conservation practices with productive land-use benefits, ensuring ecosystems can continue to provide essential services and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Back to top
Enhancing Land Health for Climate Resilience


Land health is essential because it directly underpins ecosystem services, biodiversity, and human well-being by providing the foundation for food production, clean water supplies, and stable environmental conditions. This session explores the foundational role of healthy soils and sustainable land management in addressing climate change. It will assess the critical functions for healthy land, including its capacity for carbon capture in both biomass and soil, efficient nutrient cycling, and water retention, as a cornerstone of natural solutions. Discussions will focus on practices that improve soil organic matter, reduce erosion, and enhance microbial activity, directly contributing to climate change mitigation by reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sequestration.

By prioritising land health, this session will foster the development of more resilient ecosystems, enhance soil health and biodiversity, and contribute to sustainable livelihoods, ultimately building a more adaptive and carbon-neutral future.

Back to top
Water Management Strategies in Agriculture

Effective water management strategies in agriculture are essential for optimising crop yields, conserving precious water resources, improving soil health, and building resilience against climate change to achieve global food security. This session is dedicated to optimising water use for climate resilience. It will explore innovative solutions for conserving and effectively managing in response to variable rainfall while simultaneously reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture. Topics include precision irrigation, rainwater harvesting, efficient drainage systems, and the selection of drought- or flood-tolerant crops.

Considering the reality of unpredictable weather patterns and increasing water stress, this session deals with minimising water-related GHG emissions (e.g., from pumping), rationalising soil water use, preventing nutrient runoff and pollution to water bodies, and enhancing the overall health and productivity of agricultural landscapes, fostering climate-adaptive and environmentally responsible farming systems.

Back to top
Integrated Pest and Disease Management

The significance of IPDM is likely to intensify with climate change, as altered temperature and precipitation regimes influence pest life cycles, their geographic distribution, and disease prevalence. By fostering resilient agroecosystems through integrated strategies, we can mitigate yield losses, protect biodiversity, and ensure food security, all while adapting to new pest pressures and safeguarding the long-term health of agricultural systems. Solutions include enhancing beneficial insect populations, utilising resistant crop varieties, implementing precise monitoring and forecasting approaches, and the deployment of biological control measures.

This session addresses the need for adaptable strategies in confronting the impacts of agricultural pests and diseases amidst shifting climate patterns. It will explore innovative, ecologically sound approaches that minimise reliance on synthetic inputs, thereby reducing GHG and environmental pollution to soil and water bodies.

Back to top
Climate Risks and Vulnerability Across Agri-Systems

The significance of Climate Risks and Vulnerability lies in anticipating and preparing for the socio-economic impacts of climate change, including food insecurity, livelihood disruption, and migration. Solutions will emphasise data-driven risk assessments, targeted adaptation strategies, and policy frameworks that build resilience within vulnerable communities, ensuring equitable and sustainable agricultural development in the face of a rapidly changing climate. Understanding the specific climate challenges and their diverse impacts on various agricultural sectors and communities will be an important goal.

This session will examine regional climate projections to identify critical threats, such as altered rainfall patterns, increased extreme weather events, and rising temperatures. It will assess the vulnerability of different Agri-systems, from crop production to livestock and aquatic farming, considering their exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.

Back to top

Early Warning Systems and Climate Risk Mapping

Empowering agricultural communities with timely, localised insights for enhanced climate change mitigation and adaptation will be essential. By providing clear guidance on resilient cropping strategies, water management, and diversified land use, these systems can reduce economic losses, enhance food security, and build the adaptive capacity necessary to thrive in an increasingly uncertain climate.

Empowering agricultural communities with timely, localised insights for enhanced climate change mitigation and adaptation will be essential. By providing clear guidance on resilient cropping strategies, water management, and diversified land use, these systems can reduce economic losses, enhance food security, and build the adaptive capacity necessary to thrive in an increasingly uncertain climate.

Back to top
Remote Sensing, GIS, and Geospatial Analytics

Providing precise, timely insights is crucial for addressing climate change challenges. This session explores the transformative application of spatial technologies for monitoring, mapping, and analysing agri-environmental data. We will investigate the power of remote sensing, including satellite and drone imagery, combined with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to assess land use, crop health, water availability, including GHG emissions and environmental pollution, and soil properties across agricultural landscapes.

These technologies should enable the early detection of drought stress, deforestation, and land degradation, while also quantifying carbon sequestration potential and GHG emissions. Solutions discussed will include developing climate risk maps, optimising resource allocation, guiding targeted mitigation and adaptation strategies, and supporting data-driven policy decisions for a more resilient and sustainable agricultural future.

Back to top
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Digital Tools for Agriculture

Enhancing agricultural productivity and resilience under a changing climate is a common goal. This session investigates how advanced digital technologies are revolutionising farm management. We will explore the application of AI and ML algorithms to analyse large agri-environmental datasets from sensors, drones, and satellites, optimising everything from irrigation and fertilisation to pest and disease detection. These tools enhance the predictive capabilities for weather forecasting and yield projections, enabling precise resource use, reducing GHG emissions from practices like excessive fertiliser application, and assessing the carbon footprint of land use and management options. They also empower farmers with actionable insights to adapt to climate challenges, ultimately supporting more sustainable and efficient agri-food systems.

The focus of this session is on developing process-to-system-based digital tools and platforms that provide farmers, advisors and policymakers with data-driven insights and decision support systems.

Back to top
Policy Frameworks and Governance for Resilient Agri-systems

Strengthening adaptive capacity and resilience in rural communities by ensuring fair access to resources, knowledge, and financial support is essential. Thus, this session examines the policy landscape, institutional arrangements, and community-level initiatives that are needed to support climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture. Solutions discussed will include participatory governance models, strengthening extension services, promoting climate-smart agricultural policies, and fostering cross-sectoral collaboration to enable farmers and rural populations to effectively respond to climate risks, secure livelihoods, and contribute to global greenhouse gas reduction targets.

National and international policies, such as carbon pricing, subsidies for sustainable practices, and international agreements, that can foster climate-resilient agriculture will be explored.

Back to top
Circular Bioeconomy and Financing Mechanisms for Agriculture

A major objective is transitioning agriculture from a linear to a regenerative model, fostering increased resource efficiency and minimising pollution. This session explores pathways that might be used to integrate circularity into agricultural systems and secure the necessary investments for climate resilience. It will examine cost-benefit analyses for adopting circular practices at the farm level, such as nutrient recycling and waste valorisation, demonstrating their economic viability. Solutions include exploring innovative market-based mechanisms like carbon credits, green bonds, and the impact of investment funds.

The session will also discuss the role of insurance schemes and other financial instruments in de-risking climate-smart agriculture, mobilising private capital, and enabling farmers to invest in sustainable practices for long-term productivity and adaptation under a changing climate.

Back to top
Leveraging Indigenous Knowledge and Local Adaptation Strategies

Integrating context-specific, often effective, traditional strategies with scientific approaches is becoming increasingly important as a basis for sustainable agricultural development. Practical solutions include documenting and revitalising traditional farming techniques, crop varieties, and water management practices that build resilience to changing climate patterns. This session highlights the importance of recognising and integrating traditional ecological knowledge and community-led solutions for a wider climate-resilient agriculture. We will explore how centuries of observation and adaptation have endowed indigenous communities with invaluable insights into sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation, and the approaches for coping with environmental variability.

By fostering collaborative partnerships, this session aims to empower local communities, enhance local adaptive capacity, and contribute to holistic, culturally appropriate climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods in a changing world.

Back to top
Sustainable Energy and Post-Harvest Innovations

The significance lies in addressing a major source of GHG emissions while simultaneously improving food security. By increasing energy efficiency and reducing post-harvest losses, these solutions can contribute to a more sustainable and resilient food system, ensuring that more food reaches consumers with a lower environmental impact.

This session explores solutions for enhancing agricultural resilience and reducing its carbon footprint throughout the food value chain. We will examine the adoption of renewable energy solutions on-farm, such as bioenergy, solar and wind power, to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and ensure energy security in the face of climate disruptions.

The session also examines innovations in post-harvest management and value chains, including advanced storage, processing, and transportation technologies designed to minimise food losses and waste.

Back to top
Youth in Climate-Resilient Food Systems

Fostering inclusive, intergenerational solutions is vital for a sustainable future. By empowering youth and integrating gender perspectives, we can unlock innovative approaches to climate-smart agriculture. This enhances community resilience and builds more equitable food systems that are both productive and adaptive to changing climatic conditions, ensuring a just transition for all. This session addresses the critical social dimensions of climate change, focusing on empowering youth and promoting gender equality within agri-environmental systems. We will explore the unique vulnerabilities and innovative potential of young women and men in agriculture, recognising their vital role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. 

Discussions will centre on strategies to ensure equitable access to resources, education, technology, and decision-making platforms for these diverse groups.

Back to top
© Copyright 2020-24. INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CLIMATE-RESILIENT AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS. All Rights Reserved The Conference | Developed by Rara Themes Powered by WordPress.