Quantifying the Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Crop Cultivation

Typography

"Climate-smart” crop cultivation, characterized by a low greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint, low synthetic nitrogen consumption, and simultaneously high yields (Figure 1), is an approach in agriculture for implementing the Paris Agreement as part of mitigating climate change. The GHG footprint is an index used to indicate the climate change impact potential exerted by crop production. It is therefore crucial to accurately quantify the GHG footprints of crop cultivation systems. However, severe problems or drawbacks in the quantification of GHG footprints still exist, which has limited the applicability of the GHG footprint in crop cultivation.

"Climate-smart” crop cultivation, characterized by a low greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint, low synthetic nitrogen consumption, and simultaneously high yields (Figure 1), is an approach in agriculture for implementing the Paris Agreement as part of mitigating climate change. The GHG footprint is an index used to indicate the climate change impact potential exerted by crop production. It is therefore crucial to accurately quantify the GHG footprints of crop cultivation systems. However, severe problems or drawbacks in the quantification of GHG footprints still exist, which has limited the applicability of the GHG footprint in crop cultivation.

To solve these problems or drawbacks, in a recently published study in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, Prof. ZHENG Xunhua and her coauthor from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed a generic methodological framework to quantify the GHG footprints of crop cultivation systems free from grazing (Figure 2). 

Read more at Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Image: A 'climate-smart' crop cultivation system is characterized by a low greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint, low consumption of synthetic nitrogen (i.e., new Nr), and simultaneously high crop yields. (Credit: ZHENG Xunhua)