Nature‐Based Solutions for Climate‐Smart Agriculture: Current Status and Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Nature‐based solutions (NbS) have emerged as a promising strategy for agricultural systems to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These include practices such as agroforestry, organic amendments, and conservation agriculture, which can provide several ecosystem services and benefits including enhanced soil health, carbon sequestration, and increased biodiversity. Despite their growing prominence, robust evidence on the overall performance of NbS remains limited, particularly regarding their co‐benefits, trade‐offs, and environmental impacts. This study presents global case studies that highlight the advantages and limitations of various NbS practices, as well as current challenges to their widespread implementation. We explore opportunities for integrating NbS into the transition from linear, intensive farming towards circular agriculture, unfolding multiple benefits across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. We evaluate the role of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a comprehensive tool for quantifying environmental impacts and supporting evidence‐based decision‐making. Drawing on these insights, we conceptualise a framework that integrates NbS and circularity principles into agricultural systems, with LCA as the quantitative backbone complemented by other economic and social assessments. Nevertheless, further research is still necessary to improve conventional LCA so that it can capture the multifunctionality and diverse ecosystem services provided by NbS. Advancing these methods will aid in the development of a robust framework for implementing, assessing, and monitoring NbS in agricultural systems, supporting the creation of policies that promote climate‐smart agriculture.