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.
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: