Explanation:
Farmers are particularly impacted by extreme weather conditions, which include drought, severe heat, flooding, and other shifting climatic trends. These all pose challenges for farmers as they work to grow enough food, which is why we’re devoted to finding ways to transform agriculture to be part of the solution in addressing climate change. By 2030, we commit to achieve 30 percent reduction of the field greenhouse gas footprint of our farming customers.
From contributor to mitigator
Although agriculture is a contributor to climate change, the industry plays a role in curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen oxide that contribute to climate change
Training Session in Pine Forest
To help ensure a more sustainable future, farmers are taking steps toward a carbon-zero future: using cutting-edge tools and farming practices to remove as much—if not more—greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than a farmer emits. The development of climate-smart solutions including digital farming and improved plant breeding technologies will help reduce agriculture's impact on climate change in the future, and here are some of the many existing practices that are making a positive impact today:
Reducing tillage
With better weed-control solutions, farmers reduce the need to till, decreasing tractor passes over the field and allowing for less soil disruption. This not only curbs greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel use, but when soil is left untilled it is better able to store carbon, as well as nutrients and water.
Increasing efficiency
Digital tools and precision agriculture techniques enable farmers to have a more intimate and informed understanding of what’s happening in their fields. For example, Bayer is working on software platforms that offer monitoring tools which help farmers use pesticides more efficiently, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pesticide runoff into water. Precipitation alerts let farmers know which fields may be too wet or too windy to apply pesticides so they can avoid costly treatments and unnecessary fossil fuel use. Satellite and drones provide real-time field health images that enable farmers to identify areas of crop stress or pest infestations, so that corrective actions can be taken quickly and efficiently. These tools help farmers optimize land use to grow enough food on less acreage, offering the potential to reduce the number of acres needed to feed a growing population.
Optimizing nutrients
Agriculture is also pioneering the use of microbes to enrich crops by helping plants harness and use nutrients and water more efficiently. Joyn Bio, a joint venture between Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks, is working to create microbes that will help crops like corn, wheat, and rice extract nitrogen from the air to use on their own. This would radically reduce the need for man-made fertilizer and be a powerful step towards a carbon-zero future for agriculture.
Halting deforestation
The largest source of atmospheric carbon related to farming occurs when agricultural expansion leads to deforestation or draining of wetlands, which reduces the ability of the natural ecosystem to absorb and store carbon. By developing solutions that help farmers grow enough on less land, agriculture is working to preserve natural habitats—even finding ways to help farmers identify areas of their land that would add more value to their operation as a biodiversity sanctuary to support animals, pollinators, and their surrounding environment.
