Climate-Adaptive Farming: Strategies for Food Security and Adaptation Models Amid Rising Droughts and Population Pressures

Carbon sequestration through agroforestry and sustainable land management has emerged as one of the most promising natural climate solutions available to humanity in the context of accelerating global warming. This narrative review synthesises the current state of knowledge on the mechanisms, rates, and co-benefits of carbon storage in agroforestry systems, covering both above-ground biomass and soil organic carbon dynamics. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature published between 2005 and 2026, alongside authoritative institutional reports, this chapter examines how the deliberate integration of trees with crops and livestock landscapes enhances carbon stocks while delivering simultaneous benefits for biodiversity, food security, water regulation, and rural livelihoods. The review further explores measurement and monitoring frameworks, including allometric approaches, eddy covariance techniques, and emerging remote sensing methodologies, that underpin credible carbon accounting in complex agroforestry landscapes. Key drivers of and barriers to the upscaling of agroforestry as a mitigation strategy are examined, with attention to land tenure, market access, extension services, and payment-for-ecosystem-services schemes. The chapter also situates agroforestry within the broader landscape of sustainable land management practices — including conservation agriculture, integrated soil fertility management, and avoided deforestation — to assess relative contributions to national and global climate targets. Gaps in knowledge, including long-term stock permanence, accurate baseline establishment, leakage effects, and social equity dimensions, are identified. The review concludes that agroforestry and sustainable land management represent cost-effective, multi-functional strategies that merit substantially greater investment and policy support if the goals of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved.