US To Invest 1 Billion USD In Climate Smart Agriculture

Climate-sensitive agriculture is the need of the hour. While developing nations understandably have problems generating the resources that are necessary to take up this type of farming, developed nations are more than well equipped to do so.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the US Department of Agriculture will invest $1 billion in pilot programs to encourage farming, ranching, and forestry techniques that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or collect and store climate-warming carbon. Climate-sensitive agriculture is the need of the hour. While developing nations understandably have problems generating the resources that are necessary to take up this type of farming, developed nations are more than well equipped to do so.

The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative will be announced later Monday by the EPA. The USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation, which receives up to $30 billion yearly from the US Treasury to assist stabilize agricultural commodity prices and boost farm revenue, will be used to fund the program.

Agriculture is still a major source of pollution and the growing food demands of the world make it even more challenging to curb this pollution. (Markus Spiske, Unsplash)

The investment is the latest Biden administration initiative aimed at tackling climate change, with a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector by 2030 and putting the US on a road to net-zero emissions by 2050. This is a laudable but also a much-needed investment as developed nations are often responsible for the largest amounts of consumption and the largest amount of waste created as well. Agriculture is still a major source of pollution and the growing food demands of the world make it even more challenging to curb this pollution.

Plans include the adoption of farming methods that absorb more climate-warming carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil.

Initiatives to reduce or trap methane emissions on dairy farms, as well as programs to extend the adoption of farming methods that absorb more climate-warming carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil, are examples of qualified projects. Qualified public and private groups, such as state and local governments, non-profits, small enterprises, tribal governments and organizations, and schools and universities, will be given funding.

Applications for awards of $5 million to $100 million must be submitted by April 8, while applications for smaller funds must be submitted by May 27.

Developed nations need to move ahead with climate-smart agriculture and set a blueprint for all other nations to follow. Passing on the brunt to developing nations while they go about their unnecessary consumptive ways is neither 'sustainable' as they're fond of preaching, nor is it conducive to the growth of the world.