The final report from the 12th annual Livestock Research Group (LRG) is now available online
The 12th annual meeting of the Livestock Research Group (LRG) of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) was held virtually for the first time, given the current travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting took place over two days and was chaired by Jeroen Dijkman, New Zealand, Sinead Waters, Ireland, and Richard Dewhurst, United Kingdom (co-chairs of the LRG).
This report is a summary of the key discussions and outcomes of the meeting. The online on-demand materials that were prepared in advance of the meeting are of high quality and will serve as an ongoing publicly available resource.
The 2020 Livestock Research Group annual meeting report can now be downloaded below.
To watch all of the presentations click this link here
The Global Research Alliance in partnership with The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a consortium of 129 Universities in 38 African Countries, is pleased to announce the recipients of the two year Graduate Research Grants (GRGs) funded by the Governments of New Zealand and the Netherlands, in support of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.
The grants are aimed at building the capability of graduate and post-graduate level students in Africa to conduct applied research on agricultural greenhouse gases. The call for the grants attracted 72 applicants from 21 African countries from which eight final awardees were selected following evaluation by external reviewers and compliance to RUFORUM grant award requirement which requires that beneficiary universities have cleared their membership dues and have no overdue accountabilities
The GRA is 64 country alliance which brings countries together to find ways to grow more food without growing greenhouse gas emissions.
These Graduate Research Grants support participatory action research and training on topics related to the measurement and management of greenhouse gas emissions and removals in pastoral and agro-pastoral ruminant livestock farming systems in Africa.
To Read the RUFORUM press release and see the 8 awardees click here
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has launched its Climate Change Knowledge Hub (CC-Hub). The CC-Hub gathers all existing knowledge and resources on climate change in the agriculture and land use sectors. Its interactive features allow users to connect with peers, experts and capacity building providers. It also provides data, learning materials and activities, guidelines, policy advice and tools. The CC-Hub’s overall aim is to enhance countries’ knowledge and capacity to deliver on their climate and sustainable development goals.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has published a call for postdoctoral fellowships in climate research in Africa.
The DAAD climapAfrica programme in cooperation with the climate competence centers SASSCAL and WASCAL aims to foster application- oriented research results to tackle climate change in southern and western Africa.
The programme funds postdoctoral research projects and offers a platform for collaboration in thematic working groups composed of postdoctoral fellows and African alumni of German funding initiatives with expertise in the field of climate research.
Fellows and Alumni experts will increase their research impact and output through a comprehensive training and support programme, including general skills training, science policy advising and science management. The working groups serve as a platform to connect with peers, regional and international experts and practitioners and to build a growing professional network across Africa.
Application deadline: 15 February 2021.
Applicants must be nationals of an African country and must be willing to realise their project at a host institution in western or southern Africa.
For more information about this programme and to apply click here.
The December 2020 Issue of Who’s Counting, the Inventories and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Support Network Newsletter is now available.
This issue features the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) toolkit of Inventory Accelerator Tools, a summary of major refinements in the new IPCC 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines prepared by our partner GHGMI. Read on to learn about research capturing dietary effects modelling emissions in ruminant systems, plant secondary metabolites to mitigate enteric fermentation emissions, publication of the revised methodology guidelines for N2O measurement chambers and inventory improvements introduced to the Australian Agriculture Inventory and German Agricultural Soil Inventory.
We encourage you to directly submit content for the March 2021 Issue of Who’s Counting, or contact one of the Inventories and NDC Network co-leads directly. To receive future issues of this Newsletter subscribe here
Please read the newsletter to see other events and resources of relevance to your work.
We are pleased to welcome the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) as the newest Partner of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases!
FARA’s vision is to foster the reduction of poverty in Africa through the development of sustainable broad-based agricultural growth and improved livelihoods, particularly for smallholder and pastoral enterprises.
FARA is responsible for coordinating and advocating agricultural research for development and brings together a number of Africa’s sub-regional agricultural research initiatives to respond to continent wide development frameworks. FARA also supports the African Union Commission (AUC) in the areas of agricultural science, technology and innovation.
FARA’s strategy for 2019-2028 prioritises the issue of climate change and the extension of Climate Smart Agriculture technologies. The partnership between the GRA and FARA will help advance these aims across Africa, including with FARA’s sub-regional organisations and help support the research priorities of African GRA countries.
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has an open Postdoctoral position at their Uppsala Campus with the Department of Ecology.
The position is with the ecosystems ecology group for working on three tasks related to carbon sequestration in agricultural soils: A meta-analysis of data from long-term field experiment quantifying subsoil carbon stock change rates, and secondly, to synthesize soil carbon models that explicitly represent subsoil dynamics and evaluate their sensitivity to changes in stabilization mechanisms with depth. The third task is to evaluate soil carbon balances in three Norwegian long-term grassland experiments based on existing data. The first two tasks are related to “Soil organic carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils in Europe; CarboSeq”, an internal project within EGP Soil (https://projects.au.dk/ejpsoil/), which is a European research consortium targeting climate change adaption and mitigation, sustainable agricultural production, ecosystem services and restoration and prevention of land and soil degradation. The third task relates to a larger project on carbon sequestration in grassland (https://www.nibio.no/en/projects/carbon-storage-in-long-and-short-term-grasslands). The position provides excellent opportunities for networking with scientists in a large number of European countries.
For more information on this position and to apply visit the SLU website.
Feed supplementation with tropical plant species seems a rational, and practical approach for methane mitigation under the conditions of small-scale ruminant production systems in tropical regions.
This summary is from the paper “Role of Secondary Plant Metabolites on Enteric Methane Mitigation in Ruminants” where three students from the CLIFF-GRADS program, Sara Valencia Salazar, Isabel Molina Botero and Rafael Jiménez Ocampo are working together with scientists from CIAT and other universities.
doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00584
The rumen microbiome plays a fundamental role in the digestion process of ruminants. Microbial consortia of the rumen result in a syntrophic relationship between them and of mutualism with their host. These microbial populations use cellulose, hemicellulose and starch in ruminant rations for their growth and produce volatile fatty acids, metabolic hydrogen and carbon dioxide. During this process archaeal communities use hydrogen and carbon dioxide as metabolic energy source and synthesize methane as a byproduct. Methane is then released to the atmosphere through belching and respiration.
In the search for mitigation strategies to reduce methane production from cattle in tropical livestock systems, plant secondary metabolites have shown to be a low-cost and effective strategy. Plant secondary metabolites are naturally produced by plants for their adaptation to environmental conditions and are found in the leaves, pods, tubers or seeds of the plants, especially those from tropical regions. These compounds are found to be effective[HT1] for the reduction of methane due to their capacity to reduce archaeal communities in the rumen or other microorganisms that are associated to the formation of methane. In laboratory conditions were ruminal fermentation is simulated through the in vitro gas production technique, plant secondary metabolites showed to modify some microbial communities in ruminal liquid. Also, under in vivo conditions were methane was measured from cattle housed in open circuit respiration chambers, the inclusion of these metabolites on the diet showed reductions of up to 20% on average. Some of the most studied secondary metabolites are condensed tannins, saponins and essential oils. However, the effects of these compounds on microbial communities and methane production depend on their chemical characteristics and quantity consumed in the ruminant’s feed ration.
Written by Sara Stephanie Valencia Salazar, 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Recipient
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) notice of funding.
This opportunity from USDA requires a US scientist to partner with a foreign counterpart. APN member country scientists with US collaborators can jointly plan and prepare a proposal to be submitted by the US scientist to the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service.
All applications must reflect an ongoing relationship between mentors and fellows from the Borlaug International Agricultural Technology Fellowship Program; please contact the program manager regarding this requirement.
Deadline is March 1, 2021, 11:59 PM US Eastern time. Funding limit is $50,000 per award for up to two years duration. Includes applied research, extension, and education projects.
To read more click here
Anyone interested should first contact the FAS Program Manager: ISAAC EHLERS-WEISS : [email protected] to confirm eligibility.
The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) eighth annual workshop videos are now live.
The AgMIP8 Virtual Webshop took place from October 12 – 16th and showcased three themes central to AgMIP’s research and development – food systems, shocks, and actions. Additional interdisciplinary topics included health and nutrition, modeling, environmental stresses, and resilience.
To read more about the workshop click here
For session specific links click here or click here for the YouTube series link
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is recruiting a full professor to lead the Chair group of Cell Biology and Immunology (CBI).
As head of the CBI group, you will lead a vibrant team of researchers and lecturers. You will support the group’s research ambitions by further strengthening its position in national and international networks, by consolidating established research lines as well as developing new lines of research. You will actively contribute to the excellent reputation and position of WUR in higher education through your active role in their current education programme and in the ongoing development of courses at BSc, MSc and PhD level.
The position will be based in Wageningen
For more information, including how to apply please click here
Applications close 21 December 2020
Indirect nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from ammonia volatilization, nitrate leaching and run-off were first included in the Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGGI) methodology in 2005.
The first implementation assumed that the fraction of synthetic fertiliser N volatilised as ammonia (NH3-N) and nitrogen oxide (NOx-N) (FracGASF) was based on the IPCC default emission factor (EF) of 0.1 Gg N/Gg applied i.e. 10% of all N fertiliser applied was deemed to be lost as ammonia.
This default method also assumed that 100% of this ammonia was then deposited on agricultural land, using the IPCC default emission factor for N2O from N fertiliser of 0.01 (Gg N2O-N/Gg N) i.e. assuming that 1% of this deposited nitrogen was then lost as N2O.
Following two successive national N2O research programs in Australia, where emissions of nitrous oxide from varying soils, climates, agricultural systems and nitrogen inputs were quantified, a series of industry-specific Tier 2 emission factors were published and adopted into the NGGI.
These revised EFs (Gg N2O-N/ Gg N) were: Irrigated pasture 0.004; Irrigated crop 0.0085; Non-irrigated pasture 0.002; Non-irrigated crop 0.002; Sugar cane 0.0199; Cotton 0.0055; Horticulture 0.0085.
The Australian Agriculture Inventory Expert Advisory Panel then discussed the logic of assuming that ammonia emitted and then re-deposited into these systems would have an EF of 0.01, while fertiliser N entering the same soil as ammonia would have the industry-specific EF as listed above.
As the highest ammonia deposition rates are found within a few hundred meters of the emission source, the EFs applied for ammonia deposition were therefore considered to be related to the source of the N.
The NGGI was therefore updated so that the EFs applied for atmospheric deposition are the same as those applied for direct N2O emissions from N fertiliser applied to that system, as listed above.