Early Career CLIFF-GRADS Researcher and the Ethiopian Tier 2 Livestock Inventory, Bethel Geremew
About 85% of Ethiopian population reside in rural regions with their livelihood entirely reliant on rain-fed agriculture and livestock production. Ethiopia has been submitting its greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and biennial update report to the Conference of the Parties (COP) since 2001. Of all sectors, the agriculture sector is the largest source of GHG emissions in Ethiopia, contributing 79% (115,466.7 Gg CO2e) of the total national emissions in 2013 using IPCC Tier 1 approach. Livestock production contributes 60% (69,334.5 Gg CO2e) of all agriculture sector emissions, due to enteric fermentation, manure management and emissions from manure deposited onto pasture by grazing livestock.
The recent inventory reports livestock emissions using a Tier 2 approach that better reflects change in both the structure of livestock populations, animal management and performance. The new approach includes emission of GHGs such as CH4 (due to enteric fermentation), CH4 and N2O (due to manure management), and direct/indirect N2O (due to livestock deposit of dung and urine in managed soil) estimated from dairy cattle, other cattle, sheep and goats.
Methane (CH4) emissions due to enteric fermentation increased from 1994 to 2018 because of increase in animal population, animal management and performance. Methane emissions from manure management increased from 1994 to 2018.
Direct and indirect nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions due to manure management increased significantly from 1994 to 2018. Overall, there was a significant increase of GHG emissions from livestock production of Ethiopia due to the increase of animal populations and production.
Thus, the new Tier 2 inventory more effectively captures the variation in livestock population and production which is vital for the future improvement of the national agriculture inventory.
Bethel Geremew
My research aim is to investigate the impact of climate change, land use/land cover change and agricultural management on soil organic carbon stocks and to determine if the Anjeni watershed soils have acted as a net sink or net source for carbon over the past three decades, using the CQSTER and CENTURY models.
My research will consider methane and nitrous oxide emissions due to manure management and livestock dung deposited on pasture in the Anjeni watershed. Further, my research into whether the Anjeni watershed soil is the source of carbon emission due to the land use land cover change, agricultural management and climate changes will provide information valuable for emission analysis for the national livestock emission inventory.
Reference and further reading:
Wilkes A, Wassie SE, Tadesse M, Assefa B, Abu M, Ketema A, Solomon D. 2020. Inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from cattle, sheep and goats in Ethiopia (1994-2018) calculated using the IPCC Tier 2 approach. Environment and Climate Change Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).