Agriculture and food systems are responsible for nearly one-third of all global emissions. Paradoxically, while the sector contributes to high emissions, it is itself vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly those impacting smallholder farmers from low- and middle-income countries.

However, amidst the challenge of high emissions, the agriculture sector also presents a crucial opportunity to combat climate change and bolster the economic resilience of smallholder farmers. Positively, there is a growing focus on climate action by stakeholders within the sector, including private industry. Nowadays, an increasing number of agri-food corporations are committing to reducing their carbon footprint and transitioning towards net-zero goals.

This research report, supported by IDH and developed by Intellecap, seeks to assist agriculture sector stakeholders in their net-zero or climate action commitments by recommending relevant technology solutions. The report prioritizes and deep-dives into five technology clusters, namely bio-inputs, decentralized renewable energy, precision agriculture, energy efficiency, and farm waste management solutions, while evaluating their scalability in low- and middle-income countries.

Broadly, the report provides a comprehensive overview of net-zero transitions in agriculture and covers the following topics:

• Emission hotspots across agricultural value chains
• Efforts made by the private sector to meet their net-zero commitments
• Feasible technology options to facilitate the transition to net-zero agriculture in the context of smallholder farmers
• Case studies of technology implementation for net-zero transitions
• Collaborative actions required to scale high-impact technology clusters

The report is expected to be valuable for a wide range of sector stakeholders, including corporations, technology service providers, development funders, and governments. These stakeholders may be involved in reducing carbon footprints, designing products/services for climate change mitigation, or creating an enabling environment for climate action in agriculture.

If you have any queries or feedback on the report, please write to ravi.gupta@intellecap.net, or
borthakur@idhtrade.org.