Farming responsible for a third of harmful gases -research

By BOB KOIGI

One third of all greenhouse-gases emitted in the world come from food systems. The pollution ranges from fertiliser manufacture to food storage and packaging. This is according to a new study, which now recommends farmers to switch to actively cultivating climate-hardy crops such as cassava and millet, while embracing smart farming practices techniques  such as no tillage farming.

The study by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a partnership of 15 research centres around the world, identified tilling as one of the biggest on-farm culprits of greenhouse-gas emissions due to the elease of nitrous oxide from soils. “Between 70 and 80 per cent of agricultural greenhouse-gas emissions, such as nitrous oxide, come from the production and use of nitrogen fertilizers. So future rises in food production must be achieved without corresponding boosts in fertilizer use,” read part of the study.

Using estimates from 2005, 2007 and 2008, the researchers found that agricultural production provides the lion’s share of greenhouse-gas emissions from the food system, releasing up to 12,000 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year — up to 86 per cent of all food-related, greenhouse-gas emissions.  Next is fertiliser manufacture, which releases up to 575 megatonnes, followed by refrigeration, which emits 490 megatonnes.

 The researchers found that the whole food system released 9,800–16,900 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere in 2008, including indirect emissions from deforestation and land-use changes.

Increasing temperatures and the likelihood of flooding will challenge farmers’ ability to safely store and distribute food, boosting the risk of food-borne illnesses and diarrhoea diseases, they add.  “Food safety will in future be a crucial issue. This is a different take from the usual focus on crop yields and emissions,” said Bruce Campbell one of the CGIAR lead researchers.

By 2050, climate change could cause irrigated wheat yields in developing countries to drop by 13 per cent, and irrigated rice could fall by 15 per cent. In Africa, maize yields could drop by 10–20 per cent over the same time frame.

Kenya - which is one of the African countries that could bear the greatest brunt of the escalating change in climate due to dangerous farming methods -  has caught the attention of world scientists.

 They now recommend simple farming technologies that shouldn’t be capital or labour intensive but which play a pivotal role in even halving the vagaries of weather. One classic example is growing bananas.  Farmers in Kericho report that the bark from the banana trees is serving as fertiliser for the coffee, while the leaves shade the coffee from the bright sun, and the bananas feed their families while they wait for the coffee to harvest.

At the same time, scientists say the permanent nature of the banana and coffee canopy and root systems is strongly reducing erosion in hilly regions, and mitigating carbon creation.

Farmers in coffee growing area of Kericho are recording over 30 per cent increase from this practice while halving the effects of climate change.