Abstract
AbstractAgricultural lands make up approximately 37% of the global land surface, and agriculture is a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Those GHGs are responsible for the majority of the anthropogenic global warming effect. Agricultural GHG emissions are associated with agricultural soil management (e.g. tillage), use of both synthetic and organic fertilisers, livestock management, burning of fossil fuel for agricultural operations, and burning of agricultural residues and land use change. When natural ecosystems such as grasslands are converted to agricultural production, 20–40% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) is lost over time, following cultivation. We thus need to develop management practices that can maintain or even increase SOCstorage in and reduce GHG emissions from agricultural ecosystems. We need to design systematic approaches and agricultural strategies that can ensure sustainable food production under predicted climate change scenarios, approaches that are being called climate‐smart agriculture (CSA). Climate‐smart agricultural management practices, including conservation tillage, use of cover crops and biochar application to agricultural fields, and strategic application of synthetic and organic fertilisers have been considered a way to reduce GHG emission from agriculture. Agricultural management practices can be improved to decreasing disturbance to the soil by decreasing the frequency and extent of cultivation as a way to minimise soil C loss and/or to increase soil C storage. Fertiliser nitrogen (N) use efficiency can be improved to reduce fertilizer N application and N loss. Management measures can also be taken to minimise agricultural biomass burning. This chapter reviews the current literature on CSA practices that are available to reduce GHG emissions and increase soil Csequestration and develops a guideline on best management practices to reduce GHG emissions, increase C sequestration, and enhance crop productivity in agricultural production systems.
Highlights
Introduction on ClimateSmart Agriculture Practices and Greenhouse Gas EmissionsAgriculture is a major source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that affect climate change and is itself a victim of climate change
Agricultural lands make up 37.6% of the global land surface, and agriculture is a significant source of GHG emissions (IPCC 2014; Smith et al 2008), where CO2, CH4 and N2O are the major forms of trace gases that are responsible for the majority of the global warming effect
The comprehensive study of Squalli and Adamkiewicz (2018), based on longitudinal state-level data in the United States collected between 1997 and 2010, demonstrates that a 1% increase in organic farming acreage can result in a 0.049% reduction in GHG emissions; they showed that the net effect of organic farming on GHG emissions is dependent on the contribution of transportation on methane and nitrous oxide emissions, even though their calculation indicates that the negative environmental effect of transportation output associated with organic food production is small relative to the environmental benefits of organic farming
Summary
M. Zaman, K. Kleineidam, L. Bakken, J. Berendt, C. Bracken, K. Butterbach-Bahl, Z. Cai, S. X. Chang, T. Clough, K. Dawar, W. X. Ding, P. Dörsch, M. dos Reis Martins, C. Eckhardt, S. Fiedler, T. Frosch, J. Goopy, C.-M. Görres, A. Gupta, S. Henjes, M. E. G. Hofmann, M. A. Horn, M. M. R. Jahangir, A. Jansen-Willems, K. Lenhart, L. Heng, D. Lewicka-Szczebak, G. Lucic, L. Merbold, J. Mohn, L. Molstad, G. Moser, P. Murphy, A. Sanz-Cobena, M. Šimek, S. Urquiaga, R. Well, N. Wrage-Mönnig, S. Zaman, J. Zhang, and C. Müller
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