East Angila: In 2021 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued the first volume of its latest authoritative report on climate change. The United Nations secretary-general branded its findings a code red for humanity. The emerging and predicted impacts on agriculture and food supplies are stark, according to the panel.
For instance, heat waves, drought, and increasing rainfall variability could adversely affect crop yields and livestock productivity. This, in turn, could cause problems with food availability and nutritional quality, as well as risks of malnutrition and hunger. Some parts of the world disproportionately bear this burden: over three billion people are currently deemed highly vulnerable to climate change, most of them in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
Small-scale farmers and pastoralists are particularly at risk. The need for climate action is now evident, but finding viable pathways can be challenging. Yet effective climate actions can reduce climate-related risks while fostering sustainability. Climate smart agricultural technologies offer various proven climate actions, such as agroforestry or drought-tolerant seeds.
Such technologies can potentially raise farm productivity while also mitigating (that is, combating) climate change or helping farmers adapt to it, or both. Microalgae are a diverse group of microscopic aquatic organisms. Like plants, they typically generate energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. But they differ from plants in basic ways. For instance, they grow in water instead of on land and absorb nutrients directly instead of via roots.
While some microalgae are seen as harmful, others provide useful products. Consumers, businesses, and researchers have shown growing interest in microalgae in recent years. The use of Arthrospira platensis (spirulina) as a food supplement is one example. Others include how microalgae can be used as crop support tools, bioplastics or biofuels.
One question that has remained largely unexamined, however, is whether agri-food applications of microalgae might offer promising options to mitigate or adapt to climate change. A new academic paper set out to provide provisional answers. It reviewed the available evidence on microalgae as food supplements, livestock feeds, biofertilisers, biostimulants and biochar feedstocks.
It then assessed the potential of these five microalgae applications to serve as the basis for climate actions. Microalgae have been used as traditional foods in various countries where suitable species occur naturally, such as Mexico and Chad. Nowadays microalgae food supplements are principally eaten by health-conscious consumers. Yet they can also be used to address malnutrition and to improve health in places where diet is poor.
As foods, microalgae can be potent sources of nutrients, including high-quality proteins, lipids and vitamins. Microalgae production has characteristics that clearly distinguish it from plant or animal production. It doesn't require fertile land. It is largely independent of local weather patterns and could potentially recycle water. It has elevated productivity and scope for continuous harvests.
This technological profile is well suited to coping with climatic shocks, so microalgae production can be climate resilient. The delivery of microalgal biomass for use as food or for other applications can thus also be climate resilient. Novel feeds like microalgae, seaweed and insects offer options to improve the sustainability of livestock production by providing protein-rich complements to staple feeds like grasses and feed crops.
Microalgae feeds have been tested on cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, poultry and fish. The results have typically included improved productivity, better nutritional quality of products, or both. Microalgae could also provide a secure source of feeds in places where livestock deaths linked to climate change are a growing concern.
The microalgae applications examined clearly hold promise, both as avenues for fostering climate resilient food production and as climate change mitigation measures. These applications could thus be framed as climate actions. But more research is needed to explore and verify this potential, and to examine issues like consumer acceptance and managing possible contamination risks. In the meantime, microalgae technologies merit greater attention from consumers, farmers, and governments as timely and hopeful innovations. (PTI)
