Manufacturing industries have been a focus for reducing carbon emissions. However, agriculture also has its fair share of emissions. Agriculture contributes up to 24% of GHG emissions worldwide. Moreover, the contribution of agriculture in methane emissions is 25-30% — the highest in any human-related activity. Hence reducing emissions in agriculture becomes critical.
49% of emissions come from livestock, mainly through burping and flatulence. In addition, 22% comes from energy use, 16% from rice methane and 13% from soil fertilisation.
Some approaches to reducing emissions in agriculture are:
- Shift to renewable energy/ biofuels
- Increased use of biochar
- Increasing forests and biodiversity
- Improved farming techniques, including no-till planting, enhancing soils with cover crops, making better use of crop residues
- Reducing flatulence and burping among cattle through methane reducing feed additives and supplements
- Reducing stubble burning by incentivising farmers, mechanically cutting stubble and composting stubble.
- Using drip irrigation to reduce rice methane
The shift to net zero is imperative, and agriculture has a significant role to play.
Utkarsh Majmudar 