Policy Brief on Low Carbon Agriculture

SAIN’s “Low Carbon Agriculture” project produced the first issue of Policy Brief titled “Improved Nutrient Management in Agriculture – A Neglected Opportunity for China’s Low Carbon Growth Path”. The key messages include:

1. GHG emissions connected with agriculture (in the range 1210-1444 Mt CO2-equivalent) represent 17-20% of total GHG emissions from China.
2. Manufacture and use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer is the source of 7% of China's GHG emissions (a conservative estimate).
3. There is widespread 30-60% overuse of nitrogen fertilizer on crops in China. This overuse accounts for about 10-15% of total GHG emissions from agriculture.
4. If this N over-use were corrected total GHG emissions could be decreased by >2% and nitrous oxide emissions by 30% or more without compromising China’s food security.
5. The above information can contribute to the formulation of a national strategy for low carbon agriculture

The project team are currently working on an ”inventory of technologies” that can be used to increase the efficiency of use of N from fertilizer and manure, using information from on-going research in China. Implementing these will decrease the carbon intensity of Chinese agriculture.
This three year project is funded by UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and by China’s Ministry of Agriculture, led by Zhang Fusuo (China Agricultural University, zhangfs@cau.edu.cn) and David Powlson, Rothamsted Research, UK, david.powlson@bbsrc.ac.uk).
The full text of the policy brief can be downloaded at:
http://www.sainonline.org/download/PolicyBrief No1finalcn.pdf