The fifth and final thematic student session of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration series was held 20 October 2020. The topic was “Soil Systems” and was open to alumni of the CLIFF-GRADS programme.

The following CLIFF-GRADS Alumni shared and discussed their PhD research with their peers;

• Maria Eliza Turek of Brazil,
• Erick Rodrigo da Silva Santos of Brazil,
• Ricardo Cesário dos Santos of Brazil,
• Amahnui George Amenchwi of Cameroon,
• Antony Mlambo of Zimbabwe,
• Bethel Geremew Shefine of Ethiopia, and
• Chukwuebuka Christopher Okolo of Nigeria

Of interest to the participants were technologies and techniques for increasing carbon storage in soil to support climate change mitigation. Participants also discussed international research collaboration, including the challenges of data collection from multiple locations across the world and the potential utility of a global soil carbon map.

The session featured guest speaker, Dr. Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Soil and Climate Change Scientist, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco.

Please listen to the recording for more!

The second thematic student session of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration series was held 8 September 2020. The topic was “Pasture Systems and Agronomy” and was open to alumni of the CLIFF-GRADS programme.

The session featured guest speaker, Dr. Jacobo Arango, Environmental Biologist at the Tropical Forages Program at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The following CLIFF-GRADS Alumni shared and discussed their PhD research with their peers;

• Fabiano Alecrim of Brazil,
• Gbênouwa Pénéloppe Thertulienne Gnavo of Benin,
• Israel Oliveira Ramalho of Brazil,
• Shimbahri Mesfin Gebreslase of Ethiopia, and
• Vanina Maguire of Argentina.

Of interest to the participants were strategies for measuring and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems and crop production. Participants discussed the trade offs between dietary manipulations and reducing emissions from enteric fermentation, nitrous oxide emission from nitrogen excreted onto pasture as manure and from altering growing patterns of nitrogen fixing crops.

Please listen to the recording for more!

On 14 October 2020, the GRA and CCAFS successfully hosted the tenth webinar of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration Series.

The special session on the interface between science and farming featured three young farmers from the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) Gymnasium Programme. The farmers, based in South Africa, United Kingdom, and New Zealand, discussed the impact extreme weather events have had on farmers in their countries and shared their perspective on the role agriculture can play in addressing the challenges of climate change.

The panellists also discussed considerations scientists can take to involve agricultural producers when working on farms and the need for scientists and farmers to work together to come up with practical and innovative solutions.

Please listen to the recording for more!

The fourth annual meeting of the Integrative Research Group (IRG) of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) was held at Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands on 2-4 March 2020. Delegates attended from 13 GRA member countries, nine partner organisations and Madagascar attended as an observer. 

Discussions focused on achievements of the IRG, the future of a Circular Food Systems Network led by the Netherlands within the IRG, exploring the co-benefits of GHG mitigation and adaptation, and how the IRG can achieve its aims. IRG committed establishing a formal Circular Food Systems Network, working closer between GRA members and with GRA partners to model co-benefits and align work programmes.

The meeting was attended by Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Madagascar, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States of America. The purpose of the IRG is to foster collaboration in the science community across the GRA Research Groups and between GRA member countries, international partnerships, research organisations and research institutions to ultimately develop international knowledge and capabilities for estimation, monitoring, and projecting greenhouse gas emissions within and across agricultural systems.

The meeting report and presentations are available here.

In 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization and Global Dairy Platform published a report entitled, ‘Climate Change and the Global Dairy Cattle Sector’. This global review identified improved cattle health as one key action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock production. This new research pilot study report shows considerable potential for long-term and lasting cost-effective mitigation of GHG emissions in Chile, Kenya and UK dairy production through implementation of key Animal Health Improvement Measures (AHIM). The potential to include these improvements in a country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will be influenced by the design of its monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system, including its GHG inventory. Work will continue in the areas of economics and in MRV system requirements in order to include cattle health interventions in NDCs.

The final webinar of the Progressing Partnerships webinar series – “Demonstrating impact” was held on the 23 September 2020. The webinar discussed practical methods for compiling livestock greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 2 approach and showcased good practices from the development of a Tier 2 GHG emissions inventory for the dairy sector in Kenya. Fifty-one participants from 19 countries, representing government agencies, universities, national and regional research institutions and development agencies, attended the webinar.

The webinar featured three guest speakers, Andreas Wilkes (UNIQUE Forestry and Land Use), Benjamin Kibor and Robin Mbae (Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Kenya) who shared their expertise and experiences on developing livestock GHG inventories using a Tier 2 approach.

The GRA Secretariat would like to extend a big thanks to all the guest speakers for providing their time and expertise to the Progressing Partnerships webinar series. Three key lessons can be drawn from the outcome of this series:

• Opportunities for research international collaboration exist. However, participation of national experts and institutions in international agricultural GHG-specific efforts and networks is low in many countries.
• Successful engagement in agricultural GHG research will require coordination among national experts (researchers and policymakers). Within this context, in-country leadership is vital to all processes that underpin agricultural GHG inventories, MRV systems and NDCs.
• There is a clear need for capacity building – supporting peer learning and knowledge sharing on agricultural GHG emissions across the regions.

The fourth student session of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration series was held 7 October 2020. The topic was “Rice Systems” and was open to alumni of the CLIFF-GRADS programme.

CLIFF-GRADS Alumni (Tegegnework Gebremedhin of Ethiopia, Sruthi P of India, Sani Idris of Nigeria, Primitiva Mboyerwa of Tanzania, Ong Quoc Cuong of Vietnam, Durba Kashyap of India and Glory Edwards of Nigeria) shared and discussed their PhD research with their peers. Of interest to the participants were strategies for measuring and increasing sustainable rice cultivation with reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Participants also discussed consumer choice and willingness to purchase low-emission rice. The session featured guest speaker, Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander, Senior Scientist and Climate Change Specialist, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

To register for upcoming webinars, please click here. Sessions intended for the students are restricted to CLIFF-GRADS Alumni.  

The James Hutton Institute, Scotland are seeking candidates for a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ecosystem Modelling (2 year fixed term post) to work on a NERC funded multi-disciplinary project to develop dynamic digital platform to create a Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system to capture changes in soil carbon and GHG emissions from agricultural systems.

For more information about the position and to apply, click here

Applications close 28 October 2020

On 30 September 2020, the GRA and CCAFS successfully hosted the eighth webinar of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration Series.

The special session on Global Agricultural Production and Emissions Trends featured guest speaker Professor Chevalier Dr. John Porter. Professor Porter discussed the Kaya Identity and potential application to agricultural production and emissions. Please listen to the recording for more!

Professor Chevalier Dr. Porter is an eminent agricultural and climate change scientist and is internationally known in the fields of crop and agricultural ecology. His main scientific contribution has been multi-disciplinary work in the response of crops to their environment with an emphasis on climate change and ecosystem services.

To register for upcoming webinars, please click here. Sessions intended for the students are restricted to CLIFF-GRADS Alumni.

In 2017, an international project entitled: Capturing the Effects of Diet on Emissions from Ruminant Systems (CEDERS) was established and funded by the New Zealand Government to support the objectives of the Livestock Research Group of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. Led by scientists from the Livestock Research Group’s Feed and Nutrition Network (FNN), CEDERS looks to build on the findings of the related FNN Global Network project.

The main goals of CEDERS are (1) to examine dietary effects on on-farm GHG emissions and their trade-offs, both at the farm and national scales, (2) to support GHG mitigation research and (3) to align national agricultural GHG inventory research across a consortium of ten countries (Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and United Kingdom).

A Preliminary report on the applicability of process-oriented models for GHG reporting 2020, jointly authored by project leads; Ronaldo Vibart, Cecile de Klein, Arjan Jonker and Tony van der Weerden, has been completed as part of the CEDERS project and aims to:

• identify the most common on-farm GHG accounting tools used by the participating countries;
• explore the livestock GHG accounting approach used by these tools; and
• understand the potential benefits of adding further diet characteristics to on-farm GHG accounting tools for dairy cattle systems.

The focus is on methane emissions from enteric and manure management sources and nitrous oxide emissions from excreta and manure management sources.

C-Lock Inc. has announced the award recipients of their inaugural 2020 Research Equipment Grant program. This competitive grant program was designed to provide an opportunity for institutions to research and test cutting-edge ideas that use C-Lock Inc. technology which will improve efficiency, productivity, and sustainability in animal agricultural production. C-Lock received 44 research proposals from 17 countries and the U.S.  

Recipients of Equipment Grant Awards include: 

Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), University of Missouri, University of Tennessee, Agriculture Victoria (Australia), University of Arkansas, University of Nebraska, University of Pennsylvania, South Dakota State University.

Founded in 2009 by Dr. Patrick Zimmerman, C-Lock Inc. developed and patented GreenFeed for measurement of ruminant gas fluxes in production environments and has also developed their SmartFeed and SmartScale systems for measuring, monitoring, and controlling individual animal feed intake and performance. C-Lock looks forward to working with the winners of the 2020 Research Equipment Grant program and is eager to see the results of the studies.

Read more here: https://www.c-lockinc.com/blog/c-lock-inc-funds-over-500k-in-equipment-grant-proposals-to-research-institutions-globally

The Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Germany are seeking candidates for a PhD position on “Changing surface heights in peatlands – shrinkage or peat mineralization?”. It is a 4-year position and paid with 65% E13 TVÖD salary.

For further inquiries please contact: Dr. Bärbel Tiemeyer ([email protected]) or Dr. Ullrich Dettmann ([email protected]).

Apply now! Applications deadline is 8 October 2020.