Reducing carbon emissions from agriculture for environmental security

Abstract

Climate change, caused by enhanced greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission arisen as the most prominent environmental issue globally. Agriculture contributed 11.9, 10.0 and 14% of total GHG emission of world, G20 countries and India, respectively. During 2016, GHG emissions from Indian agriculture was 407.8 Mt CO2 eq. Enteric fermentation contributed highest (54.6%), followed by agricultural soil (19.1%), rice cultivation (17.5%), crop residues burning (6.7%) and manure management (2.2%). During 1970–2016, GHG emission from Indian agriculture increased by 75%, however, relative contribution decreased from 33 to 14% during same period. Despite carbon emission, agriculture offers several options for GHG mitigation through enhancing nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) by judicious use of nitrogenous fertilizers, reducing CH4 emissions from paddy fields and enhancing carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. India has taken several initiatives to reduce carbon emission from agriculture and recently committed to reduce the GHG emission intensity by 45% by 2023 to achieve the net zero emission by 2070. A win-win solution would be to develop such mitigation strategies that help in sustainable agricultural development.