Impacts of Agricultural Land Use Changes on Water and Carbon Footprint

Abstract

Land use changes could result in significant climate gains. However, research on the implications of agricultural land use changes for carbon and water footprint for Scotland is lacking. As such, the goal of the present study is to simulate the impact of 5/30 per cent reduction in land allocated to livestock and arable crop production on Scottish emission and water use levels. To achieve our goal, positive mathematical programming technique was used to simulate changes in land use using data from the Scottish Agricultural Census and Farm Management handbook. The results suggest that reducing land allocated to livestock and poultry production by 5 per cent could result in 3 per cent reduction in carbon and water footprint. Similarly, 5 per cent reduction in land allocated to arable crops could reduce total carbon footprint by 1.87 per cent and water footprint by 2.21 per cent. Land set aside can be used for ecosystem services such as grassland.