Mitigation of non CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture

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Mitigation of non CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions
from Agriculture

• Presentation to the in-session workshop of the
  Ad-hoc Working Group
• New Zealand Delegation to COP/MOP12

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Agriculture greenhouse gas emissions

• Represents 14 of global GHG emissions
• Represents 7.4 of Annex 1 emissions
• Represents 26 of non-Annex 1 emissions
• Mitigation options are relatively limited

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Agriculture is important

• Agriculture supplies food to the world
  population expected to increase from 6 billion to
  9 billion by 2050
• Agriculture is important for the sustainable
  development of communities and national
  economies, for both developed and developing
  countries

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New Zealand emissions
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NZ agriculture situation

• A reliance on the export of primary products
• Dynamic land use meeting market demand
• 49 of total GHG emissions from agriculture
  (highest of any developed country)
• Highly efficient production

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NZs agriculture emissions profile
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The challenge

• Biological systems are complex
• 64 of New Zealands agricultural emissions have
  no current feasible mitigation solution
• At present, practical mitigation options for
  grazing ruminants and grazed pastures are limited
• More research is required globally, however, this
  is of a lower priority in most developed
  countries

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Current focus in agriculture

• PGGRC a government/sector partnership for
  agriculture research
• Measurement crucial
• Technology adoption becoming more of a focus

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Mitigation of ruminant methane emissions

• Animal variability
• Genetics (variation between animals 14-26
  g-CH4/kg dm intake)
• Nutrition
• Production system
• Microbial
• Direct modification of microbial processes
  Protozoa, Acetogens, Phage, Methanogens
• Vaccination
• Monensin (up to 10) - in grain diets forage
  diets 0
• Medium chain fats
• Plants
• Plant extracts
• Plant species (tannins up to 10)
• High sugar grasses

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Mitigation of nitrous oxide emissions

• Reduce the amount of excreta N
• Replace N boosted grass with maize silage
• High sugar grasses
• Shift N balance from urine to dung
• Increase N efficiency of excreta and N fertiliser
• Restricted grazing of dairy and beef animals
• Effluent utilisation on dairy farms
• Nitrogen fertiliser timing, rates and forms
• Nitrification inhibitors DCD has real promise
  and is commercially available in NZ
• Avoid anaerobic soil conditions
• Improve drainage
• Avoid compaction

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Conclusions

• There is no simple single solution for CH4 and
  N2O from agriculture - a package of measures will
  be required
• Reducing methane emissions from grazing ruminants
  currently has limited options available
• Options need to be evaluated at the farm scale
  and for all three major GHGs collectively GHG
  footprint of total system
• GHG measurement will continue to be an issue
• Increased international effort particularly in
  ruminant methane mitigation in pastoral
  agriculture is needed

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