Mitigating GHG emissions from agriculture

1. Mitigating GHG emissions from agriculture Role of sustainable agriculture

2. Mitigation principles • Reducing emissions • reduce emissions by managing the C and N flows in agricultural systems • approaches would vary from region to region • local conditions • Enhancing removals • storing (sequestering) C • methods that increase photosynthesis or slows return of C via respiration • soil organic matter (SOM) is a large store (sink) for C in soils

3. Avoiding emissions • avoiding cultivation of new lands (deforestation) • using bioenergy feed stocks to release C (via CO2) of recent origin rather than ancient C through combustion of fossil fuels

4. Greenhouse gases : Worldwide impacts, Julie Kerr Casper, Facts On File, Inc., New York, 2010

5. Niggli, U., Fließbach, A., Hepperly, P. and Scialabba, N. 2009. Low Greenhouse Gas Agriculture: Mitigation and Adaptation Potential of Sustainable Farming Systems. FAO, April 2009, Rev. 2 – 2009.

6. Sustainable agriculture • Sustainable agriculture is an agriculture production system that uses one or more practices that are environmentally sound and socially responsible • Productivity and profit are still the focus of sustainable agriculture, but they must be achieved with the care of the environment and well-being of the farm household and local community • Sustainable agriculture is not anti-technology, but embraces any useful technology provided that they do not cause harm to the environment • The key to sustainability is to use optimally but not damage the environment

7. Sustainable agriculture deliberately lowers artificial or synthetic inputs and non-renewable energy sources, and replaces them with natural materials or methods • Part of this is achieved by practicing integrated nutrient and pest management techniques

8. Nutrient management • Instead of artificial fossil fuel-based fertilisers, soil fertility can be gradually build up by • growing nitrogen-fixing plants/microbes together with crops • mulching using crop residues or animal manures • composting • reduce or eliminate soil tillage • crop rotation and intercropping • mixed (integrated) farming • organic farming

9. Pest management • Control pests (as well as diseases) by natural methods • biopesticides (from natural resources) • biological control • crop rotation and intercropping

10. Nitrogen-fixing plants • Nitrogen is an essential nutrient to plant growth • Two groups of herbaceous and woody plants have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil • at least 1,350 species of plants capable of nitrogen fixation, although only about 25 are extensively used today in agriculture and forestry • Legumes are such as beans, peas, clover and alfalfa • legumes popular in Malaysia: Centrosema, Pueraria, Mucuna, Calopogonium • Some plants have symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium, Frankia and Azotobacter bacteria, which form nodules in the roots • Mycorrhizae fungi-root association also important

11. Root nodules http://www.allposters.com

12. Mycorrhiza Left plant without Mycorrhizae Right with Mycorrhizae Left plant without Mycorrhizae Right with Mycorrhizae http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/Bot201/Symbiosis/Symbiosis.htm

13. Mulching Rice straws Palm fronds Leaf litter Empty fruit bunches (EFB) Ecomat (made from EFB) http://thailand.ipm-info.org/components/mulching.htm

14. Cover crops • Common cover crops in Malaysia, in particular in oil palm plantations • Pueraria javanica/phaseoloides • Calopogonium mucunoides • Centrosema pubescens • Mucuna bracteata • Arachis pintoi • In addition to N-fixation, cover crops protect soil surface from erosion, conserve water, increase soil fertility through increased SOM (and biological activity) and addition of other nutrients

15. Mucuna bracteata in oil palm http://edmayang.com/products_mucuna_gallery.html

16. Compost Hot composting Vermicomposting http://www.compostguy.com/composting/hot-composting-vs-vermicomposting/ http://aquirkyblog.com/tag/compostapalooza/

17. Minimum or zero tillage • Soil fertility can also be improved by minimizing or completely stopping tillage • Ploughing is a common practice worldwide to control weeds and aerate the soil before sowing • Ploughing, however, disturbs the soil, leaving it vulnerable to erosion, releases carbon dioxide as decomposition is promoted, and, in some cases, actually cause more, not less, weeds • bringing up seeds closer to the soil surface for easier germination

18. Crop rotation Different season, different crop Different field location, different crop (always the same crops) http://agriculture.kzntl.gov.za/publications/books/plant_diseases/disease_4.htm http://www.baap.lt/codes_gap/lithuania/chapter_2.htm

19. Intercropping Two or more crops planted together in the same plot http://www.environment.uwaterloo.ca/ers/faculty/moelbermann.htm http://eucalyptusclones.com/eucalyptus.htm Eucalyptus-sugar cane Maize-soybean

20. tall & short canopies deep & shallow roots More efficient light & water use • Compared to monoculture crops, polyculture crops also use sunlight and water more effectively and often give higher yields

21. Pest Management • Instead of synthetic pesticides, the practice of polyculture helps to reduce the population of weeds and pests • Polyculture is the culturing of two or more crops simultaneously, as opposed to monoculture, where only a single type crop is cultured, typical in conventional agriculture • Monocultures produce a uniform population of a single crop species so this encourages weeds and pests since they are often host-specific • Polycultures, in contrast, break up the uniformity of the crop population, and this discourages the spread and population of weeds and pests

22. Control of insect pests • Bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis exudes a harmless toxin to humans but deadly to insects (toxin formulated as biopesticides) • Plutella xylostella (vegetables) • Spodoptera sp. (vegetables, fruit and root crops)

23. Plant weeds?! • In Africa, maize has two common problems: stem borers (Chilo partellus and Busseola fusca) and a parasitic weed known as African witchweed (Striga spp.) • By planting Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and Desmodium (Desmodium uncinatum), both weeds, along the maize rows, these weeds help to control both pests • Napier grass attracts and actually kills the stem borer because the Napier grass contains a toxin deadly to the borer • Desmodium exude a prohibitive chemical against Striga • Method first introduced in Kenya and saw 60-70% increase in maize yields

24. Maize pests http://www.arc.agric.za/home.asp?pid=637 stem borer http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/chelsea/2005/ Striga weed

25. Napier http://www.arc.agric.za/home.asp?pid=637 Maize-Napier http://abbe.mysuperblogs.in/100707/p2/ Maize-Desmodium

26. Beneficial fungi • Beauveria bassiana • Cylas formicarius (sweet potato) • Lissorhoptrus brevirostris (rice) • Verticilium lecanii • Bemisia tabaci (vegetables) • Myzus persicae (fruit and root crops) • Trichoderma sp. as control of soil-borne pathogens • Phytopthora capsici (vegetables, ornamentals) • Rhizoctonia solani (vegetables, ornamentals)

27. Beneficial insects • Trichogramma sp. • Mocis latipes (pasture) • Heliothis virescens (maize) • Plutella xylostella (vegetable) • Diaphania sp. (cucumber) • Telenomus sp. • Spodoptera frugiperda (maize) • Encarsia sp. • Bemisia sp. (beans)

28. Intercropping as a pest control

29. Mixed (or integrated) farming • An agricultural system that consists of both crop and animal • minimizes external inputs • recycles all wastes within the system • saves energy and money • more stable income • depending on more than one type of activitiy

30. Wasteland biomass Fossil reserve Sun, soil, rain CROPS ANIMALS Straw Brans, cakes Losses Losses Leys, fodder Draught Solid excreta Urine Labour Labour HUMANS Food, etc Food, etc

31. Rice-fish culture • Rice-fish culture is the cultivation of wetland rice with fish • practised with almost no external chemical fertilisers • Besides fish providing an additional income to farmers, the wastes from these fishes (such as tilapia and carp) also help to increase the amount of organic fertiliser in the fields and the movement of these fishes help to spread the organic fertiliser more evenly than the farmer can http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/x3185e/X3185e3.htm

32. CIPAV mixed farming system • Developed by the Foundation Center for the Investigation in Sustainable Systems of Agricultural Production (CIPAV), typifies the success of integrating and using local natural resources to produce several commodities • The system consists of the simultaneous cultivation of sugar cane, food crops (like corn or rice) and tree fodder (trees or shrubs used for animal feed), together with the raising of sheep, pigs, ducks and fish

33. CIPAV mixed farming system

34. The system works by minimising external inputs so that each component in the CIPAV system sustains one another • Essentially, the crop residues serve as feed to the livestock and fish, and in turn, the wastes from the livestock and fish serve as fertiliser to the crops • Moreover, their wastes, together with crop residues, are digested in a biodigester to produce fuel for household cooking and electricity

35. This mixed farming system recycles all wastes so that little is thrown away: one’s waste is indeed another’s food • Reduces dependency on fossil fuels because of its self-sufficient system means little external input is required; in fact, by being able to generate its own fuel from wastes means even less depedency on fossil fuels • This mixed farming system recycles all wastes so that little is thrown away: one’s waste is indeed another’s food • Reduces dependency on fossil fuels because of its self-sufficient system means little external input is required; in fact, by being able to generate its own fuel from wastes means even less depedency on fossil fuels

36. Cows and sheep Food and Agriculture organization. 2001. Mixed crop-livestock farming. A review of traditional technologies based on literature and field experience. Series title: FAO Animal Production and Health Paper - 152. Rome, Italy

37. Chicken and fish Food and Agriculture organization. 2001. Mixed crop-livestock farming. A review of traditional technologies based on literature and field experience. Series title: FAO Animal Production and Health Paper - 152. Rome, Italy

38. Livestock and crop Food and Agriculture organization. 2001. Mixed crop-livestock farming. A review of traditional technologies based on literature and field experience. Series title: FAO Animal Production and Health Paper - 152. Rome, Italy

39. Crop-livestock farming in Malaysia Oil palm and sheep Rubber and sheep But problem of damaged trunks with cattle-rubber or goat-rubber http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/004/X6543E/X6543E04.htm http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/af298e/af298E21.htm

40. Organic farming • Agriculture production that excludes (completely prohibits) the use of any • synthetic agrochemicals • plant and animal growth regulators • livestock feed additives • GM organisms • Organic farming relies on, among others, crop rotation, green manure, compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and control pests

41. Organic farming acreage http://www.organic-world.net/

42. Distribution of organic land by continent http://www.organic-world.net/

43. In 2001, Malaysia only had 131 hectares of organic land. But in 2006, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry said that Malaysia then had 2,367 hectares of organic land (an 18x expansion or 3.6x increase per year). Those could include non- certified organic lands. http://www.organic-world.net/

44. http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=39955

46. Can sustainable agriculture deliver? • In 2006, the world’s largest study on sustainable agriculture was published • This study covered 286 projects in 57 countries, involving 12.6 million farmers on 37 million hectares (about the size of Japan) Dr. Jules Pretty Uni. of Essex, UK

47. Increased yields • Reported that farms adopting sustainable agriculture technologies saw an average yield increase of 79 per cent across a wide variety of crop types, including grain crops • Wetland rice, for instance, saw a yield increase of over 20 per cent • Furthermore, these farms helped to sequester (store) an annual average of 1.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare, totalling about 48 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year

48. Land use change Reversion of cropland to another, preferably closer to the original native vegetation convert to grassland less C removal from harvested material lesser soil disturbance revert drained cropland to wetland rapid C accumulation planting trees (agroforestry) reduce C emission C sequestation Drawback: loss of agricultural productivity good only for marginal land or have surplus agricultural land

49. Second generation biofuel Use of non-food plant parts as biofuel such as stem, leaves and stalk of maize plant Non food crops like jatropha (Jatropha curcas), Elephant grass (Miscanthus giganteus), and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), hemp (Cannabis sativa) which grow well in poor fertile soils No competition with food Drawbacks: have to do life cycle analysis to determine mitigation benefits may have positive net CO2 emissions non food plant parts have lower ethanol yield

50. Reducing methane emission from rice fields Reduction in the CH4 efflux from rice fields can be made either by reducing the methane production, increasing methane oxidation, or reducing methane transport through plants Reduce CH4 emissions by mid-season drainage avoid year long flooding, no 3 times planting a year plant with wider spacing use sulfate-based fertilizers (ammonium sulfate and sodium sulfate) crop rotation: wetland rice – upland rice new rice cultivars