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Mitigation and adaptation potential of sustainable farming systems
FAO, May 2008

Agriculture can help mitigate climate change by either reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses or
by sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere in the soil. However, the application of improved
agricultural techniques (e.g. organic agriculture, conservation tillage, agroforestry) reduces or stops
soil erosion and converts carbon losses into gains. Consequently, considerable amounts of CO2 are
removed from the atmosphere. Organic agriculture already provides effective methods to reach both
of these goals, even though there is still need for further improvement.

In order to reduce trade-offs among food security, climate change and ecosystem degradation,
productive and ecologically sustainable agriculture with strongly reduced greenhouse gas emissions
is crucial. In that context, organic agriculture represents a multi-targeted and multifunctional
strategy; it offers an interesting concept that is being implemented quite successfully by a growing
number of pioneer farms and food chains.
Many components of organic agriculture can be implemented within other sustainable farming
systems, and organic agriculture might be a starting point for an ecological intensification of food
production. The system-oriented and participative concept of organic agriculture, combined with
sustainable cutting-edge technology, might offer greatly needed solutions in the face of climate
change.