Challenges and opportunities for mitigation in the agricultural sector

The paper covers emissions from enteric fermentation, manure management, agricultural soils, rice cultivation, burning of savannahs and agricultural residues. Other activities covered include soil carbon sequestration in agricultural soils and the agro-forestry systems. The report focuses on two non-CO2 greenhouse gases: nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). The report does not cover deforestation emissions associated with land use change to agriculture. However, we note that deforestation emissions are comparable with non-CO2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in terms of impacts on the atmosphere, using a 100 year time horizon for the analysis.

The report comprises two main parts. The first section provides background information on the development of (GHG) emissions from the agricultural sector, trends of emissions and their projected growth. Mitigation potentials and costs for agriculture, including livestock, crops, soils, land-use change, bioenergy, carbon sequestration and energy in agriculture, are addressed in the second part of this paper. Finally, a detailed Annex provides an summary of existing and emerging or future mitigation practices, highlighting opportunities and challenges for each practice, including barriers to implementation, methodological aspects of each practice and identifies win-win options, best practices and, when applicable, co-benefits and synergies. Knowledge gaps and R&D needs on mitigation practices are identified as the basis of recommendations for future work.

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