Environmental Sustainability of the Agricultural Economy with Reliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture

The research aims to investigate the prospects for environmental sustainability of the agricultural economy in the Decade of Action based on climate-smart agriculture (using crop production as an example). To achieve the research goal, the author applies the method of regression analysis to carry out econometric modeling of the contribution of climate-smart agriculture to the environmental sustainability of the agricultural economy based on international experience. The sample includes all 113 countries covered by the Economist Impact food security statistics in 2022. As a result, it is substantiated that climate-smart agriculture plays an important role in ensuring the environmental sustainability of the agricultural economy, significantly increasing the resilience of agriculture to the risk of water scarcity and declining water quality, as well as to the risks of land degradation and declining soil fertility. However, the persistence of horizontal agriculture constrains the development of climate-smart agriculture and limits its contribution to the environmental sustainability of the agricultural economy. The prospects for environmental sustainability of the agricultural economy in the Decade of Action based on climate-smart agriculture are related to the transition to vertical farming. The practical and management implication of this research is that the new approach to climate-smart agriculture developed through the creation of vertical farms will make it possible to achieve systemic environmental sustainability in the agricultural economy. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.