African Development Bank

Run by Dr Marcelo Javier Beltrán of the Croplands Research Group, this webinar aims to spread and share scientific knowledge on sustainable agriculture. It will be ran on the 8th of March 12-13:30 UTC

The registration link can be found here

Alissa Benchimol

The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI) is working with the Government of Fiji in implementing an Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) project. ICAT works with countries to provide guidance, capacity building, and knowledge to facilitate a common transparency framework in the assessment of policies and climate actions. The initiative offers a suite of resources and guides that are especially relevant to countries developing and implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). GHGMI has been an implementing partner for ICAT since 2020 and currently provides technical support to seven countries, including Fiji.

The Fiji ICAT project is focused on strengthening institutional monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) capacity for estimating agriculture sector GHG emissions and assessing GHG and sustainable development impacts of agriculture sector policies – the country’s second-largest source of emissions (excluding LULUCF). According to Fiji’s Third National Communications (NC3), agriculture emissions account for 21% of Fiji’s inventory (total of 551 Gg of CO₂e) with methane emissions accounting for the largest majority (405 Gg of CO₂e; 78% from enteric fermentation, 20% from manure management, 2% rice cultivation)[1].

Working with Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Economy, the main goals of the 14-month project are to:

1. develop the blueprint for an MRV system for the agriculture sector by focusing on emissions from enteric fermentation, manure management, and rice cultivation.
2. build capacity of national experts to calculate emissions from livestock and rice cultivation using the 2006 IPCC methodology.
3. apply ICAT tools for policy impact assessment in the agriculture sector.
4. develop recommendations for including agriculture sector policies in future NDC updates.

The ICAT project supports Fiji in two main ways. First, it provides funding to hire national experts who will carry out the goals of the project. Second, ICAT implementing partner GHGMI provides technical support to the Government of Fiji and national experts on the delivery of project outputs. This approach recognizes the need and opportunity to develop national expertise for agriculture sector MRV with guided support by leading international experts in the field of agriculture sector GHG accounting. To this end, GHGMI and New Zealand and Australian experts from GRA, are developing a series of hands-on trainings to guide Fiji’s national experts in developing: (a) an instruction manual for the calculation of GHG emissions from livestock and rice cultivation in Fiji; (b) a report on estimated GHG and sustainable development impacts of two agriculture sector policies; and (c) a national systems guidelines manual for the agriculture sector. 

The guided training series will develop national experts’ theoretical and practical skills in data processing, national MRV systems, and on fundamental application of the 2006 IPCC guidelines – enabling Fiji to maintain their own agriculture GHG inventory and MRV system in the future. The hands-on trainings will be focused on the estimation of emissions from agriculture key sources (livestock and rice cultivation) using best available data, understanding and applying ICAT guides for assessing GHG and sustainable development impacts of agriculture policies, and developing institutional arrangements, national reporting system design, and Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) plans for the agriculture sector in Fiji. The ICAT impact assessment guides are a series of methodologies and frameworks for assessing the GHG, sustainable development, and transformational change impact of policies. Additionally, by strengthening Fiji’s agriculture MRV and policy assessment capacity, the project aims at identifying ways in which the sector can be included in future NDCs. It will also support the agriculture sector reporting for the next national GHG inventory within Fiji’s First Biennial Report and the Fourth National Communication, and build a solid platform for reporting the agriculture sector under the Paris Agreement.

The project was officially launched at its Inception Workshop in January of 2021 with key stakeholders introducing the project and creating awareness on MRV and GHG Inventory as an important tool in driving policy action for the sector. The topics covered include expectations and project needs for setting up agriculture MRV and conducting policy assessment. A survey of workshop participants indicates the experience improved stakeholders’ understanding of these topics (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Self-reported level of knowledge before (left) and after (right) the inception workshop.

[1] Data collected from Fiji’s Third National Communication (year 2011). Percentages were approximated.

The Department of Agroecology are now accepting applications for three job opportunities, at AU Foulum in Denmark. These roles will start on the first of July. Two of the positions are three-year post doc, with the other being a tenure track position. A brief summary of each position can be found below, with further information linked for each.

Applications close on the 31st of March for all three positions. Follow the hyperlinks in each job title to find out more.

Tenure track position in Grassland based livestock production systems 

You will take the lead of research aiming of integration of grassland in conventional and organic farming system, including both livestock and the emerging green biomass industry, in agriculture system based on  arable crops and grassland in rotation. The research area includes both grassland production and  management as well as grassland in the agricultural system in relation to production, environmental and  economic dimensions of agriculture and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions based on modelling and  experimental work, depending on your profile. Contact: Troels Kristensen ([email protected])

Postdocs in Livestock farming systems for an integrated, resilient and efficient agriculture

You will be an important part of our team working within model development and farming system analysis,  especially livestock based systems, including productivity and the environmental impacts along the whole  production chain. Experience or interest in on-farm research, system development and modelling based on  farm data is part of your profile, as well as good analytical skills in combination with a broad knowledge  about agriculture, especially livestock based.  Contact: Troels Kristensen ([email protected])

Postdocs in Life Cycle Assessment of Food and Agricultural Systems 

The successful candidates will be part of our LCA team to carry out research in this area to improve  sustainability of food and farming systems in a local and global context. In particular, we work on  documentation of effects and development of models and methods within this area, as well as identification  of promising solutions and new production systems.  

Contact: Marie Trydeman Knudsen ([email protected]) or  Lisbeth Mogensen ([email protected])

The December 2020 issue of the CRG Newsletter is now available!

This issue includes:

• Cropland Research Group GRA Co-Chairs message
• Integrated silvopastoral systems towards a sustainable management
• Climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean basin: current situation and risks for the future
• Pilot study in citrus on the soil and plant improvement from enriched pruning remains to reduce the greenhouse effect (PODA-VAL)
• Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU)
• Special issue on climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation in croplands
• Upcoming events

The full newsletter is linked below:

This online event, run by the European Chemical Regions Network, will present the BSAT, a toolkit designed to guide decision-makers in the development & review of regional bioeconomy strategies. After this, there will be presentations and recommendations surrounding the establishment of bioeconomy-driven working groups.

For further information and the link to register, click below

Ackim Mwape, PhD

The key role that livestock activity data plays in the development and application of national GHG inventories has been widely recognised and discussed. In order to design and implement Tier 2 MRV methods, appropriate data on the characteristics and performance of different sub-categories of livestock is needed.

Unfortunately, such data are not always available, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where it remains a challenge to collect data, and move countries towards having detailed (at least Tier 2) baselines for livestock emissions estimates to support their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Recognising that the level of availability of livestock sector activity data is currently unknown in most sub-Saharan African countries, New Zealand, through the GRA and in collaboration with regional and international partners, supported the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) and University of Pretoria to survey and analyse the availability of activity data (cattle populations) and data required for emission factors (animal performance data).

Livestock sector activity data were collated and collected from 37 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. The data collection exercise, undertaken in 2020, aimed to increase understanding of the currently available and collected in-country livestock activity data for Tier 2 estimates of livestock emissions. 

“The data collection exercise is an important first step in helping African countries improve estimates of national livestock emissions and mitigation at Tier 2 levels and decision-support for achieving NDCs and tracking NDC performance in the livestock sector”, says Hayden Montgomery, GRA Special Representative.

The results of the data collection and analysis suggest high potential to pilot a regional inventory development approach, particularly in southern Africa. For the majority countries, data availability will still be a challenge, and collecting all the missing data may not be feasible in the short run.

A temporary solution could be to systematically group countries with similar production systems, and informed by data where available, develop a regional template for livestock GHG inventories, which can be adapted to national conditions, validated, and adopted by stakeholders in each country. This could support countries to move from Tier 1 MRV methods to Tier 2 methods which are better able to reflect actual production conditions and their impact on GHG emissions.