Presentation on Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF) Annual Meeting, Tokyo, Japan, October 5, 2022

Pathways to reduce emissions from agriculture
At the Critical Decade to 2030 – Action-oriented Approach for Innovation and Deployment

Emissions fromAgriculture in 2018
• Global emissions due to agriculture (within the farm gate and including related landuse/land use change) were 9.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2eq).
• Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from crop and livestock activities contributed 5.3
billion tonnes CO2eq in 2018, a 14 percent growth since 2000.
• Livestock production processes such as enteric fermentation and manure deposition on
pastures dominated farm-gate emissions, together generating 3 billion tonnes CO2eq in2018.
• Land use and land use change emissions were 4 billion tonnes CO2eq in 2018, caused
mainly by deforestation (2.9 billion tonnes CO2eq) and drainage and burning of organicsoils (1 billion tonnes CO2eq). They decreased globally by 20 percent since 2000.
• While emissions from deforestation decreased, those from drainage and fires of organicsoils increased by nearly 35 percent since 2000.
• In Africa, both farm-gate and land use-related emissions increased over the entire 2000–
2018 period, by 38 and 20 percent respectively.
Source: Emissions due to agriculture, Global, regional and country trends, 2000–2018

Global Methane Pledge• At the Climate Conference in Glasgow in 2021, the EU and the US launched theGlobal Methane Pledge (GMP) – a collective goal of reducing man-mademethane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.Nov 22, 2021
• For achieving carbon neutrality, rapid reduction of non-CO2 GHGs such asmethane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are as essential as the reduction ofCO2.
• The main sources of these gases are agricultural activities such as entericfermentation, manure• management, rice cultivation, and so on. Also, the reduction measures of thesegases are more cost-effective than the reduction measures of CO2 emission

Why Reducing
Methane Emissions
is important?

•Methane currently accounts for around one-fifth of man-made global
greenhouse gas emissions on a like-for-like basis.

•It has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO₂), but agreater near-term warming potential (by some accounts up to 80 times).

•Because of methane’s shorter lifetime in the air, reducing new methane
emissions could dramatically reduce the pace of warming.
So curbing methane emissions can have incredible near-term impacts — bothon climate warming and on the world’s ability to meet net zero by 2050 orsooner
Slowing today’s unprecedented rate of warming can help avert our most acuteclimate risks, including crop loss, wildfires, extreme weather and rising sea
levels.
Atmospheric concentration of methane is increasing faster now than at any timesince the 1980s.
Now is the methane moment: Acting now to reduce methane emissions will
have immediate benefits to the climate that reductions in carbon dioxide cannot
provide on their own.

••••

Scope of presentation• Non-CO2 GHG reduction with a focus on methane and nitrous oxide
emissions from agriculture and livestock• (1) Challenges and opportunities for stakeholders (producer/consumer,public/private, etc.) in• reducing non-CO2 GHGs in the agricultural field• (2) Technology applications in non-CO2 reduction in agricultural field• (3) Reduction potential of non-CO2 GHGs in primary industry countries(emerging countries)• (4) Roles of emerging and developed countries and potential international
cooperation

Livestock
An example of India.
India has the world’s
largest bovine population:
110 million buffaloes and
193 million cattle. It offers
huge potential forsustainability• Cattle is distributed across nearly 80 million small-scale dairy farms,
with an average herd size of 1-3 female bovines, reflecting the small
landholdings in the country. (Livestock Census, DAHD, 2019,
FAOSTAT)• India’s milk yields across crossbred and indigenous cows and buffaloes
are some of the lowest in the world, ranging from only 20%-60% offrontier yields globally•– 2.8 liters per day (LPD) for indigenous cows, 7.5 LPD forcrossbreds, and 5.2 LPD for buffaloes against the average global
yields of approximately 20 LPD.

• Nationally, 75% of milk production comes from descript bovines and25% from non-descript bovines.

R B P optimizes
cattle feed using
local inputs

It increases per cow
and per buffalo productivity

5% 1 5%bytowhile reducing emissions by
the same amount

2.8 m illio nSome
dairy animals
are under Ration Balancing Program (RBP), i.e., butthat is only 1 percent of the cattle population.

Steps needed to reduce
livestock emissions:
Ration Balancing
Program (RBP)
Approach helps toreduce methaneemissions while
increasing livestock
productivity

Genetic improvement is thelargest driver of future
productivity gains in thedairy sector.
• Continued focus on organizing small-scale dairy
producers into dairy cooperative societies and dairyproducer companies.
• Deploying additional Local Resource Persons (LRPs) towork directly with these organizations to expand uptakeof RBP.
• Training of Milk Union and Dairy Producer Companyleadership to better understand the financial returns toRBP.
• Importantly, Continue to upgrade the overall genetic
merit of the national dairy herd.

Methane from Paddy
Production•

Globally, the CH4 emissions from paddy rice fields are other source ofmethane.

•Southeast Asia emits approximately 10 Mg CH4 km−2 and it contributes 90%
to the global rice CH4 emissions. Africa and South America contribute 3.5%
and 4.7% to the global Paddy rice CH4 budget respectively.

•Rice is a vital crop grown on more than 167.25 million hectares of land
globally. In Asia, China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Vietnam are the major
dominant rice-producing countries. So, the areas of high rice production are
equally the area of high CH4 emissions due to rice cultivation [14, 16].

•Emissions of CH4 from paddy soils are concentrated in irrigated areas;
irrigated paddy soils account for 60% of the total rice harvesting area
worldwide, but produce 78% of CH4 emissions in rice-producing areas [12].

•Population, income growth and urbanization have resulted in increased riceconsumption;•Diversification of consumption away from rice would reduce demand for rice aswell as promoting diversification of crop production.

Reducing Methane in
Paddy production• Crop improvement strategies such as breeding highyielding and high stress tolerant rice varieties with reduced
CH4 emissions the CH4 mitigation. Cultivation of highyielding and more heat-tolerant rice cultivars are apromising approach to reduce CH4 emissions from paddy
fields and slowing down global warming.
• These rice varieties should also be adaptable to changing
climate e.g., the stress and water management conditions.
• CH4 can also be reduced from paddy fields throughmanagement practices like, the mid-season drainage,alternate wetting, drying irrigation and using alternative
fertilizers to achieve sustainable rice production.

Additional Measures•

New crop varieties that better withstand climate shocks and improve yields,•solar energy for product storage, and•digital technologies that expand access to knowledge and services for ruralproducers.

•No till farming, agroforestry, and landscape management, will also support
mitigation by sequestering carbon or reducing emissions.

Right Enabling
Environment
Policies and institutions at the local,national, and international levels need toincentivize the development and adoption of
new technologies and practices and ensure
adequate finance is available. They must
recognize potential trade-offs — in terms ofyields and efficiency — between sustainablesystems and existing or other modern
farming practices and between

Presentation on Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF) Annual Meeting, Tokyo, Japan, October 5, 2022

T H ANK Y O U