User:Aderush/Greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse gas emission from agriculture
Traditional rice cultivation is the second biggest agricultural methane source after livestock, with a near-term warming impact equivalent to the carbon-dioxide emissions from all aviation. Government involvement in agricultural policy is limited due to high demand for agricultural products like corn, wheat, and milk. United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future project is addressing food loss and waste. By addressing food loss and waste greenhouse gas emission mitigation is also addressed. From only focusing on dairy systems of 20 value chains in 12 countries food loss and waste could be reduced by 4-10%. These numbers are impactful and would mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while still feeding the population. More specifically, carbon dioxid e, nitrous oxide, and methane are the biggest greenhouse gases emitted from agriculture. Methane emissions come from livestock such as cows respiring and are the number one contributor to greenhouse gases globally. Every year one cow alone will emit 220 pounds of methane methane making 14.5 % of greenhouse gas emissions. While the residence time of methane is much shorter than that of carbon dioxide its potency is 28 times stronger its contribution to warming. Not only does livestock contribute to harmful emissions but they also require a lot of land and may overgraze which leads to unhealthy soil quality and reduced species diversity. A few ways to reduce methane emissions includes consumption of plant-rich diets with less meat, feeding the cattle more nutritious food, manure management, and composting. Nitrous oxide emission comes from the increased use of synthetic and organic fertilizers. Fertilizers increase crop yield production and allows the crops to grow at a faster rate. Agriculture emissions of nitrous oxide is 6% of the greenhouse gas emission in the United States and has increased in concentration by 30% since 1980. While 6% may appear to be a small contributor, per pound nitrous oxide is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide emissions and has a residence time of around 120 years. Different management practice such as water conservation through drip irrigation, nutrient monitoring to avoid overfertilization, and the use of a cover crop in place of fertilizer application may help in reducing level of nitrous oxide emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions come from things such as tilling of fields, planting of crops, and even the shipment of crops or food cultivated to markets for revenue. Agricultural related emissions of carbon dioxide account for around 24% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. To help mitigate carbon dioxide emissions farm practices such as reduce tillage, decrease in empty land, return biomass residue of crop to soil, and increase use of cover crops can be promoted.