Climate Smart Agriculture: A Survey and Taxonomy

Due to the disruption in the cycles of rainfall, increasing atmospheric temperatures and a rise in CO2 emissions, food security is at a risk globally. This has posed severe threats to food availability, quality, quantity and livelihoods of the stakeholders in the agricultural industry. Thus, an integration of smart and environment friendly systems is inevitable to sustain the natural resources, livelihoods, food production and distribution to thereby ensure food security and mitigate climate change risks. To that end, Smart Agriculture (SA) and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) augment the existing agricultural systems to adapt to and mitigate changing climatic conditions while ensuring resource utilization optimization. Through the use of latest technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Geo-informatics and Big Data analytics, SA and CSA have been widely studied to determine optimal crop health and increase food safety. However, there is a need to analyze the role of SA and CSA in reducing the impact of climate change on food security. This paper presents an analytical review of SA and CSA along with a thorough CSA architectural taxonomy. We also highlight the limitations in the existing literature, and present recommendations to address the open issues.