Agriculture will face significant challenges in the 21st century, largely due to the need to increase global food supply under the declining availability of soil and water resources and increasing threats from climate change. Nonetheless, these challenges also offer opportunities to develop and promote food and livelihood systems that have greater environmental, economic and social resilience to risk. It is clear that success in meeting these challenges will require both the application of current multidisciplinary knowledge, and the development of a range of technical and institutional innovations.During last two decades, the atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentrations have increased markedly. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have increased from 280 ppm, 715 ppb and 270ppb during pre-industrial era (1750 AD) to 385 ppm, 1797 ppb and 322 ppb, respectively in 2008. As on today, The CO2 concentration has exceeded 400 ppm. Increase in temperature can increase crop evapotranspiration and soil nutrient mineralization and salinity, reduce crop duration, fertilizer use efficiency and may affect survival and distribution of pests. Already scarce water resources will be further stressed under expected climatic changes. In the scenario of sea-level rise, the saline area under sea inundation will also extend and influence the crop production. Thus, changing climate is likely to have a significant influence on agriculture and eventually the food security and livelihoods of a large rural population. This paper identifies possible climate change responses that address agricultural production at the plant, and farm, regional scales. Critical components required for the strategic assessment of adaptation capacity and anticipatory adaptive planning is identified and examples of adaptive strategies for a number of key agricultural sectors are provided. Adaptation must be fully consistent with agricultural rural development activities that safeguard food security and increase the provision of sustainable ecosystem services, particularly where opportunities for additional financial flows may exist, such as payments for carbon sequestration and ecosystem conservation. Climate change will affect agriculture and forestry systems through higher temperatures, elevated CO2 concentration, precipitation changes, increased weeds, pests, and disease pressure, and increased vulnerability of organic carbon pools. Benefits of adaptation vary with crop species, temperature and rainfall changes. Useful synergies for adaptation and mitigation in agriculture, relevant to food security exist and should be incorporated into development, and climate policy. Synergistic adaptation strategies to enhance agro-ecosystem and livelihood resilience, including in the face of increased climatic pressures. Ensuring food security without compromising sustainability of land resources under a rapidly growing population and changing climate is among the major challenges of this era. Smart strategies individually offers a magic bullet solution to the foregoing challenges and most of the promising technologies are founded on local knowledge, local and scientific knowledge must be integrated when choosing the most suitable climate-smart technologies and practices for any given agro-ecology.

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