The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change was set up in 2011 to come up with an integrated approach for dealing with the urgent and globally interconnected challenges of climate change and agriculture. Their final report, which was launched 28 March 2012 at the Planet Under Pressure conference, offers concrete actions to transforming the food system to achieve food security in the face of climate change. Read more about the Commission and download the report from their website.
The Livestock Research Group held the first in a series of regional capacity building workshops March 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop provided an opportunity for regional scientists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to identify future collaborations and coordinate capacity building activities in livestock mitigation research across South-East Asia.
Information about the Workshop, the agenda, the summary of outcomes and all the presentations are now available to read and download from the Livestock Research Group capability development page.
Canadian farmers will have the opportunity to increase their profits while improving the environment with the support of the Government of Canada. Member of Parliament Guy Lauzon (Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry), on behalf of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, today announced an investment of over $600,000 to the South Nation Conservation Authority to study new drainage practices that would improve water use and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
This investment is provided through the Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program (AGGP), a five-year, $27-million initiative that focuses on the development of on-farm greenhouse gas mitigation technologies. The AGGP will provide funding to various partners across Canada to investigate innovative mechanisms, tools and approaches that provide real solutions for the agriculture sector.
The AGGP represents Canada’s initial contribution to the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, an international network of more than 30 member countries that will coordinate and increase agricultural research on greenhouse gas mitigation and make new mitigation technologies and beneficial management practices available to farmers. Read the full article here.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is looking at ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in irrigated rice farms through efficient water management to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
See more about IRRI’s presentation at the recent APEC symposium on Climate change here.
IRRI collaborates with the Rice Research Group and attended the third meeting of this Group in November 2011.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is pleased to announce the 2012 USDA Global Research Alliance (GRA) Fellowships for Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, and Vietnam.
USDA, in cooperation with USAID, will support the participation of Alliance member developing countries in the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases through the Global Research Alliance Fellowships. Competitively selected research fellows will work side-by-side with U.S. scientists on climate change mitigation research for up to 3 months. These fellowships will be hosted by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and/or U.S. universities active in the targeted research areas. U.S. scientists who serve as mentors to the fellows will travel to the fellows’ country for up to 10 days to continue their collaboration on climate change mitigation research. USDA will select U.S. mentors and host institutions for each fellow.
Targeted Research Areas:
- Developing Tools for Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Sequestration Assessments.
- Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity in Crop Production Systems.
- Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity in Livestock Production Systems.
- Developing Databases and Strategies for Synthesis, Integration, and Decision Support to Manage Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Systems.
Learn more about these fellowships on the USDA website.
The Croplands Research Group of the Global Research Alliance met for the third time in San Antonio, USA on 20 October 2011. The Third Livestock Research Group meeting was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands 4-5 November 2011. The Paddy Rice Research Group held its third meeting in Tsukuba, Japan on 18 November 2011.
Summary report of all these meeting are now available from here.
The University of Reading’s Centre for Dairy Research (CEDAR) hosted the Global ReseArCH4 inveN2Ory workshop on Friday 31 October. This UK workshop supported the work of the Global Research Alliance and was an opportunity for academics and industry from across the world to view the latest measurement techniques, particularly around methane and nitrous oxide emitted by livestock, soil and manure. Follow the media links below to read more about the workshop
http://www.farmbusiness.cc/news.asp?section=248&newsid=10869
http://www.nfuonline.com/News/The-tricky-task-of-measuring-GHG-emissions/
Large swathes of the world’s grasslands are moderately to severely degraded — restoring them to a healthy state could remove gigatonnes of carbon from the atmosphere and improve resilience to climate change.
The new methodology has been developed by FAO in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the World Agroforestry Centre. The collaboration has identified a more reliable and affordable way to measure how much carbon is being trapped in agricultural mitigation projects. Read the article
Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the New Zealand Fund for Global Partnerships in Livestock Emissions Research (the Fund) are now being called. The Fund is aimed at accelerating global research into mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from pastoral livestock farming.
The Fund is open to international scientists, and it is hoped that multi-stakeholder/country consortia bids will be put forward. Projects can be led by New Zealand or international participants, but must include a New Zealand partner. Co-funding from international participants is also required.
Round 1 of the Fund totals NZ$16 million, and supports projects up to four years in duration. The cost of individual projects is expected to be in the range of NZ$1-4 million over the four years.
The Fund will seek proposals in response to a set of high-level research challenges that have been identified by an international strategic science panel, chaired by the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman. These challenges are in the areas of:
• Manipulating rumen function
• Reducing nitrous oxide emissions from soils in predominantly grazing livestock systems
• Manipulating the rates of soil carbon change in predominantly grazing livestock systems
• Improved tools for farmer decision making in predominantly grazing livestock systems
There is a two-stage application process beginning with a short expression of interest (EOI) which closes 7 November 2011. Successful EOI applicants are then invited to submit full proposals. Projects from Round 1 that gain approval are expected to commence in July 2012.
Please visit www.maf.govt.nz/nzlivestockemissionsfund to obtain further information on the fund. Alternatively, applicants that wish to can proceed via the Government Electronic Services Tender (GETS) process and obtain the information and documents from www.gets.govt.nz.
The FAO has launched a new Global Soil Partnership for Food security and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.
The partnership is developing an Action Plan on sustainable soil management that will develop synergies between partners and bring together work currently being done separately on soil survey, assessment and monitoring, soil productivity, soil carbon, soil biodiversity and ecology and soil and water conservation. Read the article
Canada’s Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program (AAGP), represents a five-year, $27-million initiative that focuses on the development of on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation technologies and is Canada’s initial contribution to the Global Research Alliance. The AGGP will provide funding to various partners across Canada to investigate innovative mechanisms, tools and approaches to provide real solutions for the agriculture sector.
The AAGP is funding Nova Scotia Agricultural College in a project to advance and develop greenhouse gas mitigation technologies that will allow producers to understand and apply nitrogen in a more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner, thereby reducing its impact on air and water quality. This will lead to better soil fertility, reduced nitrous oxide emissions, and a decrease in other environmental impacts, such as water contamination. Read the full article
In October 2010, the Livestock Research Group of the Global Research Alliance identified an initial set of priority projects that it considered would greatly assist the international research effort into livestock GHG mitigation. These included establishing research networks in rumen microbial genomics and animal genomics, producing best practice guidelines and technical manuals for the measurement of CH4 and N20, conducting a global survey of rumen microbial diversity, and the testing of a novel in-field CH4 system.
These first priority projects are now coming to an end. Download and read the project reports under the Global Research Alliance > Project Reports section on the website of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Centre who administered the projects on behalf the Livestock Research Group.