The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is recruiting an Animal Nutrition Scientist to conduct key research on how ruminants contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in diverse systems in developing countries to evaluate the effectiveness of different feed and health interventions to reduce these emissions. The position offers the opportunity to work in the only research facility in Africa devoted to comprehensively assessing the environmental footprint of livestock and mitigating the effects.
The position will be based in Nairobi, Kenya.
For more information and where to apply click here
Applications close 15 October 2020
The third student session of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration series was held 23 September 2020. The topic was “Ruminant Systems” and was open to alumni of the CLIFF-GRADS programme.
CLIFF-GRADS Alumni (Muhammed Arowolo of Nigeria, Babak Darabighane of Iran, Juan de Jesus Vargas Martinez of Colombia, Abraham Abera Feyissa of Ethiopia and Bulelani Nangamso Pepeta of South Africa) shared and discussed their PhD research with their peers. Of interest to the participants was the role rumen microbes play in the nutrition and health status of ruminants, as well as in the production of the greenhouse gas methane. Participants also discussed developing strategies needed to mitigate methane emissions from ruminant animals. The session featured guest speaker, Dr. Sinead Leahy, Senior Scientist at New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC).
To register for upcoming webinars, please click here. Sessions intended for the students are restricted to CLIFF-GRADS Alumni.
The Livestock Research Group guidelines for the use of nitrous oxide measurement chambers have been updated to account for the most recent knowledge and methodologies. The revised guidelines have been published in a special section of the Journal of Environmental Quality, freely available as open access.
The Global Research Alliance N2O chamber methodology guidelines are published as a series of papers covering the following topics:
- Introduction, with health and safety considerations
- Design considerations
- Recommendations for deployment and accounting for sources of variability
- Recommendations for air sample collection, storage, and analysis
- Considerations for automated flux measurement
- Flux calculations
- Statistical considerations, emission factor calculation, and data reporting
- Summary of modeling approaches
- Guidelines for gap‐filling missing measurements
The Guidelines have been completed in collaboration by members of the Livestock Research Group from Australia, Chile, Denmark, New Zealand, The UK and the US.
On 16 September 2020, the GRA and CCAFS successfully hosted the sixth webinar of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration Series.
The special session on Livestock Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) featured guest speaker Andreas Wilkes, Associate Expert at UNIQUE Forestry and Land Use GmbH. Andreas shared his experience in shifting the Kenyan Dairy and Ethiopian Sheep and Goat inventories from Tier 1 level reporting to more advanced country specific Tier 2 inventories.
He highlighted common key issues faced in preparing livestock inventories in non-Annex 1 countries and methods that can be used to navigate these. This session builds on the introduction to national GHG inventories provided by Dr. Olia Glade of GHGMI earlier in the virtual series. Please listen to the recording for more!
To register for upcoming webinars, please click here. Sessions intended for the students are restricted to CLIFF-GRADS Alumni.
The sixth issue of the Croplands Research Group (CRG) newsletter is now available!
In this edition you can read about:
- Modelling global N2O emissions from croplands
- New tools to facilitate soil parameters determination: emphasis in soil organic carbon
- Extensive livestock farming and climate change: an in-depth approach
- Calculation of greenhouse gas emissions for cattle and sheep in Spain
- Special issue on the cultural landscape approaches and climate change policy
- Upcoming events, including revised dates for some conferences and workshops.
Read the newsletter here.
AFINET (Agroforestry Innovation Networks) is a Thematic Network funded with 2 Million Euros by the European Commission aiming at promoting innovation through the involvement of 1000 pioneer farmers from 9 European Countries. Four main challenges were identified to
overcome the technical and economical (business plans development, value chain sustainability) issues but also the improvement of society communication through the introduction of agroforestry concepts at all educational levels. Finally better policies are claimed to improve agroforestry implementation across Europe that should be linked to the new National CAP strategic plans. An alive AFINET handbook was created to help farmers to tackle these challenges and translated to English, Spanish and Italian languages. The handbook explains the most relevant concepts of agroforestry and provides excellent innovations to implement agroforestry across Europe.
The AFINET handbook information is freely available here and any agroforester can contribute to expand it by contacting [email protected].
The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) is pleased to announce Samoa as our newest member country and first Pacific Island country. Samoa has become the 64th member of the GRA.
The GRA is looking forward to working with Samoa to improve sustainable farming practices and to produce more food while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The 64 member countries now participating in the activities of the Global Research Alliance are: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, eSwatini, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malawi, Mexico, Mongolia, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Samoa, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Register here for the final webinar of the Progressing Partnerships Webinar Series 2020!
Date: Wednesday 23rd September 2020 (9 – 10am UTC)
This webinar will present an example of practical methods for compiling livestock greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 2 approach and showcase good practices from the development of a Tier 2 GHG emissions inventory for the dairy sector in Kenya. With guest speakers, Andreas Wilkes (UNIQUE Forestry and Land Use), Benjamin Kibor and Robin Mbae (Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Kenya).
If you missed out on the first two webinars, click the below links:
The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) is pleased to announce Bangladesh as our newest member country. Bangladesh has become the 63rd member of the GRA.
The GRA is looking forward to working with Bangladesh to improve sustainable farming practices and to produce more food while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The 63 member countries now participating in the activities of the Global Research Alliance are: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, eSwatini, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malawi, Mexico, Mongolia, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
On 2 September 2020, the GRA and CCAFS successfully hosted the fourth webinar of the 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration Series.
This week’s session on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories featured guest speaker Dr. Olia Glade, Director of Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Systems at The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI). This session provides context for researchers working in the fields of agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on how to ensure research findings are relevant and implementable in a National GHG Inventory system.
Some topics we covered in the discussion were improvements to agriculture GHG inventories, addressing uncertainties, time series consistency and international reporting requirements. Please listen to the recording for more!
To register for upcoming webinars, please click here. Sessions intended for the students are restricted to CLIFF-GRADS Alumni.
Dr. Olia Glade is the Director for MRV Systems, bringing the expertise in natural science, education, greenhouse gas reporting and review under the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, and designing GHG data management systems. Previous to GHGMI, Olia was New Zealand’s GHG inventory focal point at the UNFCCC and led New Zealand’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Programme.
The first 2020 CLIFF-GRADS Science Collaboration series: Thematic Session, was held 26 August. The topic was “Integrated Systems” and was open to alumni of the CLIFF-GRADS programme.
CLIFF-GRADS Alumni (Mary Eyeniyeh Ngaiwi of Cameroon, Abdulhakeem Lawal Ahmad of Nigeria, Fernanda Leite of Brazil, and Sara Stephanie Valencia Salazar of Colombia) shared and discussed their PhD research with their peers. Of interest to the participants was the discussion of methodology development and in particular the Nitrous Oxide Chamber Methodology Guidelines. These provide internationally agreed reference guidelines for measuring N2O emissions using chamber methodologies to inform the production of quality N2O flux measurement data and improve inter-comparability between international studies. The session was hosted by Ciniro Costa Junior (CCAFS) and featured guest speaker, Dr. Todd Rosenstock, a Climate Change and Environmental Scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).
The thematic sessions occur every second week and provide an opportunity for Round 3 students to clarify their PhD research questions and/or research direction with their peers. The thematic sessions have been split into the following agricultural systems: i) integrated, ii) pastoral and agronomy, iii) ruminant, iv) rice and v) soil. These sessions emphasise student to student collaboration and are not open to CLIFF-GRADS hosts.
In addition to the thematic sessions, a series of special sessions with guest speakers explore the current science and policy challenges for agricultural greenhouse gas emission management. To register for upcoming webinars, please click here.
Issue 4 of the Inventories and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Support Network Newsletter of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) is now available.
Subscribe here to receive future issues
Issue 4 features articles relevant to GHG quantification and national inventory systems including the launch of the CBIT-AFOLU programme, inventory improvements to the Swiss Soil Carbon Inventory, a summary of the SEACRIFOG long term GHG Observation Project in Africa, CBIT-AFOLU enhancing capacity and transparency project, the CaSSECS Project which aims to quantify carbon sequestration and GHG emissions in agro silvopastoral ecosystems in Sahelian Africa, and an update on the GHG Agriculture and Land Use Accounting Tool (ALU).
Contributions and feedback are welcomed, please contact one of the Network leads with any relevant research, opportunities or country inventory and NDC updates for the next issue.