Conference: Agriculture, Climate Changes, and Energy Transitions: Building Capacity to Maintain Yields of Innovative Agrifood Systems

This award provides partial support for U.S. participants in a symposium-workshop that will be part of the program of an international conference, "Transforming Agrifood Systems in the Face of Climate Changes and Energy Transitions." The symposium-workshop will be a plenary session of the larger conference. Hosted by the Indian Ecological Society, the conference and the embedded symposium-workshop will be held at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India, November 12-15, 2024.

The symposium-workshop will address two factors heavily impacting agrifood systems: climate change and energy transitions. Agrifood systems are dependent on fossil fuels, significant emitters of greenhouse gases, while at the same time agrifood systems are threatened by climate change, are producers of biomass energy sources (food and fuels), and are carbon sinks that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Climate change effects on agriculture are better known than issues of energy and energy transitions. Fully incorporating energy and energy transitions into anticipated challenges for agrifood systems is the key novel feature of the symposium-workshop. NSF funds will be used in part for partial support of two U.S. senior researchers and a graduate student to develop the program for the symposium-workshop and, following the workshop, to craft a manuscript reporting on the workshop proceedings and findings.

NSF funds will also be used to facilitate travel of the U.S. participants to India for the symposium-workshop.

Details of agricultural science and agrifood systems often speak only to disciplinary specialists. This project will produce interdisciplinary publications accessible to a wide range of specialists and to members of the public. The symposium-workshop will be structured around four areas.

Area 1: framework for agrifood systems as energy systems: Incorporation of energy issues into agrifood systems. Area 2: Energy transitions to mitigate climate change must keep yields stable. There is a critical need for protecting yields as an integral part of successful energy transitions.

Area 3: Climate change affects pest control issues within agrifood systems and must be included in innovations in agrifood systems. Plant pathology is a key issue to address. Area 4: Issues of culture, ethics, economics, finance, and organization of activities within agrifood systems are key to developing and gaining acceptance of innovations linking agrifood systems to climate change and energy transitions.

Agrifood systems include multiple issues lying within the scholarship of the social sciences and humanities. Successful innovations from the natural sciences must be accompanied by understanding of the human dimensions of agrifood systems. Early career researchers will constitute a significant portion of the U.S. delegation, led by two senior investigators, helping to widen and enrich capacity in agrifood systems research.

The productivity and reliability of agrifood systems are of paramount importance to the nation's economy and national security.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.