Climate-Smart Agriculture Approaches for Sustainable Animal Production and Environmental Protection

Abstract

Climate change brings a number of challenges to sustainable animal production and is impacting livestock productivity, resource availability and environmental quality. Conventional livestock farming systems are linked to high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, use of resources less efficiently and reduction of biodiversity, so it is necessary to implement farming practices that are less harmful to the environment and more climate-resilient. The paper highlights the insights gained from various studies on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) for sustainable animal production and suggests an integrated framework that integrates precision livestock farming, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), remote sensing, renewable energy, circular bioeconomy, and sustainability assessment in a single decision support system. The study reviews the latest technologies developed for climate change and assesses them based on environmental, resource, production, economic and social climate smart indicators. Comparing the proposed framework with traditional livestock systems shows that the benefits in terms of GHG emission reductions, water conservation, waste recycling, feed efficiency, water-use efficiency, livestock productivity, profitability and overall sustainability score are significantly better for the proposed framework (GHG emission reductions of 82%, water conservation of 86%, waste recycling of 91%, feed efficiency of 92%, water-use efficiency of 90%, livestock productivity of 95%, profitability of 92%, overall sustainability score of 93%). The findings suggest that the use of intelligent digital technologies in conjunction with sustainable animal husbandry practices can improve productivity and efficiency, reduce environmental footprint, increase animal welfare and resilience against climate change. The proposed framework provides a viable and broad approach for researchers, policymakers, and farmers to move towards low carbon, resource efficient, and environmentally friendly animal production systems and move towards global food security and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a step.