Screening of Applications Begins: Immediately and continues until position is filled. For best consideration, apply by March 17, 2022.

Location: Kansas, USA

The USDA Southern Plains Climate Hub is partnering with Kansas State University to recruit a postdoc (Hub Fellow) that will be based in Manhattan, KS and will work with Logan Thompson, Susan Metzger and Andrés F. Cibils. They are seeking a highly motivated individual to work on livestock grazing and GHG dynamics in the Southern Plains.

For more information, click HERE.

Participants from 10 member countries of the Global Research Alliance (GRA) recently attended a meeting to plan the new GRA Flagship project “Development of context-specific emissions factors from the application of nitrogenous fertilisers” which was hosted by the Agricultural Climate Research Centre in Teagasc.

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from agricultural applications of nitrogenous fertiliser can vary significantly depending on how, where and when a fertilizer is used. Modifying farm systems and making changes to management practices, such as fertilizer type, timing, amount, rate and location of fertilizer application, has been shown to dramatically influence the amount of N₂O being emitted.

Marta Alfaro from Chile explained that the goal of the Flagship project is to encourage global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from nitrogenous fertilizer by enabling its usage to be more accurately reflected in national level greenhouse gas accounting, and to optimize nitrogen use efficiency in croplands and grasslands.

Tony van der Weerden from AgResearch New Zealand highlighted that quantifying the emissions from applying nitrogenous fertilizers in different situations in national inventories is a significant challenge for many countries. The Flagship project will greatly help in improving national greenhouse gas inventories around the world and identify practices for farmers to reduce emissions.

In Ireland and New Zealand research funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Ireland and the Ministry of Primary Industries in New Zealand has been secured to build an international database to support greenhouse gas modelling for grassland soils. Dominika Krol, Teagasc said; ”This will help to support the GRA flagship project to compile existing data, and undertake new field measurements, to develop context specific emissions factors relating to the application of nitrogenous fertilizers for the purpose of inventory improvement including N₂O mitigation accounting.”

Karl Richards, Teagasc said that these exciting international projects are important ongoing research activities in the Teagasc Agricultural Climate Research Centre to help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farms in Ireland and internationally.

Further Information
https://www.teagasc.ie/environment/climate-action/climate-centre/
https://globalresearchalliance.org/flagship-projects/n-fertilisers/

An online consultation is being organized by the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia on good examples and practices on green agriculture in the region but also beyond.

Your contributions to the online debate will be compiled and analyzed and will inform future work on the development of guidance for strengthening science-policy interfaces as well as science- and evidence-based policy processes for greening agrifood systems.

Please register to the Regional Technical Platform on Green Agriculture here to create new threads of discussions.

If you would like to receive similar information from FAO you can join the Livestock, Climate and Environment Community of Action here.

RUFORUM Global Research Alliance Graduate Research Grants

Call for proposals for Doctoral Research Grants & Graduate Research Grants – 2023

Closing Date: 30 March 2023

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM; www.ruforum.org) and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA; https://globalresearchalliance.org/) invite applications from RUFORUM Member Universities for the second Global Research Alliance Graduate Research Grants (GRA-GRG) call. The GRA-GRG is aimed at building the capability of graduate students and post-graduate scientists in Africa to conduct applied research on agricultural greenhouse gases in non-Annex I countries in Africa.

Information on how to apply can be found here: http://ruforum.org/call-proposals-research-grants

A recording of the February 2023 Farm To Regional Scale Integration Network Webinar, titled “Rethinking Tools to Assess Impacts from Dairy Farms Beyond Greenhouse Gas Emissions“, is now available to view.

This webinar brought experts together to discuss indicators for environmental impact assessment of dairy farms other than greenhouse gas emissions. The speakers shared their experiences using multiple indicators for an impact assessment on dairy farms and discussed potential trade-offs between these indicators. The webinar included presentations from:

• Dr. Catherine Pfeifer (FiBL, Switzerland): “A food system perspective to livestock husbandry, why we should look beyond greenhouse gases?”
• Dr. Alan Rotz (USDA, USA): “Local, regional and national environmental assessment of United States Dairy Farms”
• Dr. Monika Zehetmeier (LFL, Germany): “Insight from the LfL Klima-Check”

Global assessment of soil carbon in grasslands
From current stock estimates to sequestration potential

Anthropogenic activities such as intensive livestock grazing, agricultural management practices, and other land-use activities contribute to the loss of soil carbon in grasslands. The FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (FAO LEAP) Partnership developed a Global assessment of soil carbon in grasslands: From current stock estimates to sequestration potential, in collaboration with France’s Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRAE). The study provides a spatially explicit report on the state of grassland soils in the world and estimates the potential of grasslands to sequester carbon in soils.

Read the report here.