New ways of digging the dirt could both deliver more food and slow climate change. And farmers in the developing world are making a difference.

Two new studies have confirmed that farmers can win both ways, achieving a boost in harvests and helping to slow climate change.

One says that they can successfully farm with techniques that can help slow global warming and add to the store of carbon sequestered in the soils around the globe.

And a second study confirms that a range of tested and sustainable practices is already stepping up yields in small farms worldwide, while dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion and pesticide use.

Both studies address a planetary dilemma. Global agriculture is at serious risk from global warming and climate change driven by profligate fossil fuel combustion. But global agriculture – powered by greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels, ploughing, pesticides and herbicides – is also helping to drive global warming and climate change.