# Conclusion: Food system adaptation and mitigation: managing trade-offs

Céline Dutilly, Etienne Hainzelin

► To cite this version:

Céline Dutilly, Etienne Hainzelin. Conclusion: Food system adaptation and mitigation: managing trade-offs. Dury Sandrine (ed.); Bendjebbar Pauline (ed); Hainzelin Etienne (ed.); Giordano Thierry (ed.); Bricas Nicolas (ed.). Food systems at risk. New trends and challenges, CIRAD; FAO, pp.51, 2019, 978-2-87614-751-5. 10.19182/agritrop/00091. hal-05174275

HAL Id: hal-05174275

https://hal.science/hal-05174275v1

Submitted on 21 Jul 2025

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

Food and Agriculture
Organization of the
United Nations

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

# FOOD SYSTEMS AT RISK
## NEW TRENDS AND CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>
# FOOD SYSTEMS AT RISK
## NEW TRENDS AND CHALLENGES

Sandrine Dury,
Pauline Bendjebbar,
Étienne Hainzelin,
Thierry Giordano
and Nicolas Bricas (Eds)

Published by
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
and
Le Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement
and
the European Commission

Rome, 2019
Citation:

Dury, S., Bendjebbar, P., Hainzelin, E., Giordano, T. and Bricas, N., eds. 2019. *Food Systems at risk: new trends and challenges*. Rome, Montpellier, Brussels, FAO, CIRAD and European Commission.
DOI: 10.19182/agritrop/00080

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) or the European Commission (EC) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by CIRAD, FAO or EC in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of CIRAD, FAO or EC.

ISBN 978-2-87614-751-5 (CIRAD)

ISBN 978-92-5-131732-7 (FAO)

© FAO, 2019

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO;
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode).

Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organisation, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons license. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: "This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original English edition shall be the authoritative edition."

Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user.

Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through publications-sales@fao.org. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: copyright@fao.org
## CONCLUSION
OF SECTION 2

Food systems contribute to climate change with 19 to 29 percent of the total 50 GtCO₂eq/yr of anthropogenic emissions. These can be categorized in direct emissions from agricultural production and indirect ones from agriculture-driven land use change, as well as emissions resulting from the activities of pre-production (manufacturing and distribution of inputs) and post-production (processing, storage, transport, refrigeration, retailing and catering). Agricultural production is by far the main source of emissions in LI and LMI countries. Although the presence of significant barriers to adopting climate-resilient and low-carbon practices, faced mainly by smallholder food producers (FAO, 2017), has been noted⁹, Smith et al. (2008) estimated that the total mitigation potential of agricultural production could be 1.5-1.6 GtCO₂eq/yr, with a great share (70 percent) coming from LI and LMI countries. However, mitigation benefits and greater GHG efficiency might be slashed by growing emissions resulting from rising consumption in these countries.

Indeed, climate change will have growing implications in LI and LMI countries. By the middle of this century, higher average temperatures, changes in precipitation, rising sea levels, and an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events will result in a decline in food production and increased food insecurity, but also in more unstable yields resulting in price instability and related crises (Chapter 5.3). In addition, LI and LMI countries' food systems will have to cope with new pests and diseases, emerging pathogens – viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma and fungi – severely threatening the health of vulnerable people and exacerbating social and economic inequalities, leading to global health crises (Chapter 2.4).

In a context of increased climate stress, no global solution exists to improve the ability of LI and LMI countries' agriculture to mitigate its contribution to

global GHG, and simultaneously supply a growing demand for food. If certain actions can be developed to mitigate climate change in certain ecosystems, regions or food systems (i.e. limiting agriculture-driven land use change, reducing methane emissions from rice cultivation or limiting the consumption of animal products in High Income Countries (HIC)), most of the efforts in LI and LMI countries will have to be dedicated to the necessary food system adaptations to climate change. First of all, governments will need to anticipate these drastic changes in production systems and their transformation to plan for action. Research and development institutions are essential in this dynamic process. They must provide short-term decision support and long-term perspectives, by forecasting trends and proposing measures that may be applied without social costs. Second, technical and policy interventions must be situated within a broad holistic approach, maintaining the multiple roles and functions of agriculture in rural areas. Simultaneously, it seems essential to develop resilient landscapes to reduce the dispersion of pests and diseases affecting plants and animals. Finally, HIC policies (agriculture, industry, trade, migration regulation, investments and health) have effects on LI and LMI countries situations, and improved policy coherence is necessary to facilitate action in LI and LMI countries. Moreover, concerns around regional mismatches between responsibility for climate change and adaptation costs call for global mechanisms to prevent poor producers and consumers to support most of the consequences of climate change.

## FOOD SYSTEM ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION: MANAGING TRADE-OFFS

Céline Dutilly<fnref n="1" /> and Étienne Hainzelin<fnref n="2" />

## REFERENCES

**FAO.** 2017. *Strengthening sector policies for better food security and nutrition results: climate change*. FAO Policy Guidance note 5. Rome, 44 pp. (also available at www.fao.org/3/i7217en/i7217EN.pdf).

Smith, P., Martino, D., Cai, Z., Gwary, D., Janzen, H.H., **Kumar, P.**, **McKarl, B.**, et al. 2008. Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture. *Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences*, 363(1492): 789-813.

<footnote n="1">1. CIRAD, UMR MOISA, F-34398 Montpellier, France; University of Montpellier, F-34090 Montpellier, France.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2. CIRAD, DG, Gatineau J9H 4S7, Canada; University of Montpellier, F-34090 Montpellier, France.</footnote>