With increasing world population, agriculture has to do more using intensive agricultural systems to feed this growing population. However, the use of intensive agricultural systems usually is associated with more Greenhouse Gases (GHG) released to the atmosphere contributing to climate changes.
The concept of carbon footprint has gained some attention recently as a tool to measure the contribution of the process of producing any product to the release of GHG.
How effectively can we use this tool in agriculture to contribute to the mitigation of climate changes?
In my opinion, carbon footprint can be related to life cycle assessment (LCA) of agrarian management and practices in agriculture. Besides, the sustainable forestry management, the food vs fuel debate upon: a) the intensive land occupation for energy crops and b) the principles of life cycle inventories, as well as the biofuels production from biomass sources to supplementary energy production, could further contribute to the mitigation of climate changes. However, the measurable impact of these policies upon carbon footprint and mitigation of climate changes should be ideally treated/determined as proactive, no post-treatement.
Agriculture is one of the most important contributers to the emissions of greenhouse gases. Each crop, land use, managment practices has a different amount of emission of greenhouse gases. Carbon footprint is a tool to assess and inventory these gases.So it should be considered in the life cycle assessmnt and quantifying greenhouse gases for each crop, managment practices and land use. After building database (based on the previous published or unpublushed work in specific site or similar sites), the data about C footprint can be incorporated in the future planning for selecting the approperiate crop, farming practices and land use according to the site conditions. This can be a good step for planning not only to mitigate climate change, but also for enhancing soil quality, improving crop productivity and sustainable management.
I agree with both of you @ Grigorios Kyriakopoulos and Heba Y. Elbasiouny
The idea of carbon footprint is to monitor our impacts on the atmosphere by reducing the amount of CO2 we emit into it. Carbon dioxide and methane are the biggest culprits in the climate change debate. Hence any activity that reduces the generation and release of Carbon dioxide and methane is a worthwhile activity as we strive hard to combat climate change. Agriculture is one area where we can reduce our carbon footprint. The beef industry for instance produces a lot of methane which eventually gets converted into carbon dioxide and causes global warming. Farmers can however reduce the amount of methane produced for every kg of beef produced. One of the key drivers is days to slaughter; an animal that is finished at 16 months compared to one at 30 months will have emitted substantially less methane during its lifetime. Therefore optimising animal performance is key. Genetics, animal health and nutrition all play a key role when it comes to the performance of any animal. This is something that farmers need to improve on.
Some oils such as linseed, coconut, garlic and cotton oil are considered to be amongst the most effective additives for methane mitigation. Adding fats to the cow's diet offers a promising solution for reducing methanogenesis, without having a significant negative impact on other functions of the cattle.
"Blue carbon" such as coastal plants such as mangroves, marine plants and salt marshes, may be the most effective habitats for mitigating carbon emissions that cause climate change, because of their high absorption and storage over thousands of years. Coastal plants are growing rapidly and have the potential to store organic carbon in the soil saturated with the surrounding water, so blue carbon plants such as mangroves are able to store carbon more efficiently, compared to other ecosystems such as tropical rainforests. Countries with large coastal facades should expand these eco-friendly ecosystems to address climate change. Forests represent Indonesia, Brazil and Malaysia
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