FAO report outlines sustainable ways to deal with livestock methane emissions

FAO report outlines sustainable ways to deal with livestock methane emissions

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate change

Context:  According to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations about 32 per cent of global anthropogenic methane emissions result from microbial processes that occur during the enteric fermentation of ruminant livestock and manure management systems, while another 8 per cent comes from rice paddies. To tackle this, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations suggested four strategies (discussed later) for better management of livestock.

The report, put together by a multidisciplinary team composed of 54 international scientists and experts of the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership, was released during FAO’s first ever ‘Global Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation’ from September 25-27, 2023.

Concept

Methane emissions:

• Methane is a short-lived greenhouse gas (GHG), which has an atmospheric lifetime of around a decade, as against the dominant GHG carbon dioxide, which affects the climate for hundreds of years. However, methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
• The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had found that methane emissions from all anthropogenic activities currently contribute about 0.5 degrees Celsius to observed global warming, making their reduction an important pathway to achieve the Paris Agreement.
• Besides agrifood systems, other human activities that generate methane emissions include landfills, oil and natural gas systems, coal mines and more.
• Among ruminants, the highest daily emitters on a per animal basis are cattle, followed by sheep, goats and buffalo.
• Meat and milk from ruminant livestock provide an important source of protein and other nutrients for human consumption. By 2050, the global demand for animal products is projected to increase by 60-70 per cent, with developing countries accounting for the majority of this increase.
• The study noted four broad strategies in mitigating methane emissions: i) Animal breeding and management; ii) Feed management, diet formulation and precision feeding; iii) Forages and iv) Rumen manipulation.
• Improving feed efficiency increases animal productivity per unit of feed and may increase farm profitability depending on the cost of feed with respect to the revenues from meat and milk.
• It highlighted the importance of studies quantifying the effects of improved nutrition, health, reproduction and genetics to increase animal production and decrease methane emission intensity on a regional basis so that these measures are relevant and can be implemented.