Agriculture - a climate villain? Maybe not!
A proposal to rethink agriculture in the climate calculations

Date:
July 7, 2020
Source:
Linko"ping University
Summary:
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims
that agriculture is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases,
and is thus by many observers considered as a climate villain.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims that agriculture is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases, and is thus by
many observers considered as a climate villain. This conclusion, however,
is based on a paradigm that can be questioned, writes Per Frankelius,
Linkoping University, in an article in Agronomy Journal.


==========================================================================
The fundamental process in agriculture is large-scale photosynthesis,
in which carbon dioxide is captured by crops and at the same time oxygen
is produced. A fraction of the carbon is bound in the plant roots, while
most of it is bound in the form of carbohydrates that are harvested and
used in other sectors of society. This involves various form of cereal,
oilseed crops, vegetables and grassland.

"The fact that the carbon is bound in the crops, which at the same time
produce oxygen, just as growing forest does, is a positive effect that is
not included in the IPCC calculations. These only consider the greenhouse
gases that have a negative impact on the climate. This is also the case
in The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which is a well established standard
for calculating the emission of greenhouse gases," says Per Frankelius, associate professor in business administration at Linko"ping University,
who has recently written an article in the Agronomy Journal, published
by the American Society of Agronomy.

"This view is based on a paradigm that has essentially never been
questioned.

Politicians and decision-makers must understand the complete range of
the climate impact of agriculture, otherwise there is a risk that many decisions that influence long-term sustainability in a negative manner
will be taken," says Per Frankelius.

The justification that crops are not included as a positive factor is
probably that carbon dioxide is formed in the next step along the chain,
when the crops are consumed by humans. "But that takes place in another
sector: it's not part of agriculture," Per Frankelius points out.

Per Frankelius gives an example calculation in the article in Agronomy
Journal: Many different crops are cultivated as agricultural products,
and all of them perform photosynthesis. One common crop is cereals,
such as wheat, and in 2019, global production of cereals was 2.7 billion tonnes. This corresponds to approximately 1 billion tonnes of carbon,
which in turn corresponds to 3.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. The
figure would be significantly higher if we included other crops such as
oilseed crops and sugar beet.



==========================================================================
"The total agricultural production has been estimated to be 9200 million
tons by FAOSTAT. Different crops have different water content, but a
good guess is that the total production corresponds to approximately
9100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide," adds Per Frankelius.

Agriculture produces also grasslands and grazing that bind carbon,
and a further 2.7 billion tonnes of carbon is bound in the soil.

"So is agriculture one of the world's largest climate villains, or
does the sector actually have a positive impact on climate?" asks Per Frankelius.

He does not question the fact that agriculture also produces a significant amount of negative greenhouse gases, and it is important to reduce this
in a sustainable manner.

Per Frankelius, who is also process manager at Agtech 2030, an innovation platform at Linko"ping University, presents in the article no less than
seven concrete measures that can both advance the sector and reduce
emissions. The measures range from ensuring that fields are green
throughout the year to the marketing of animal ecosystem services, the
use of fossil-free mineral-based fertilisers, the spread of biochar,
replacing diesel by fossil-free biodiesel, electricity, fuel cells or
even steam to power engines, planting trees in rows along the edges of
fields and placing solar panels there to follow the sun with a recently patented technology, and various ways to reduce soil compaction. He
refers to concrete examples in all cases.

The conclusions Per Frankelius draws are unambiguous: in order to
achieve long- term sustainability, all aspects of global agriculture
must be developed, not wound down or given less advantageous economic conditions. One key to success is innovation.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Linko"ping_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Per Frankelius. A proposal to rethink agriculture in the climate
calculations. Agronomy Journal, 2020; 112 (4): 3216 DOI: 10.1002/
agj2.20286 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200707113331.htm

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