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Impact of smallholder cattle farms on the environment: a study

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Abstract

With increasing evidence of global warming, the pressure is building to limit greenhouse gas emission from many human activities including dairy production systems. In this context, the present study was conducted to estimate the carbon footprint (CF) of cattle milk produced in the Hisar district of Haryana, India. The data about feeding practices, crops grown, manure management systems, etc. was collected through personal interviews with cattle-rearing rural male farmers chosen through multistep random sampling. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was adopted to estimate carbon footprint, with the system boundary being “Cradle to farm gate.” The latest methodologies prescribed by the IPCC were used to estimate GHG emissions using the tier-2 approach. The current study has presented a detailed and recent GHG inventory from smallholder cattle farms at the village level. On the basis of the inventory analysis, a simplified life cycle-based analysis is used in order to quantify the carbon footprint of fat- and protein-corrected milk (FPCM). The carbon footprint of cattle milk was estimated at 2.13 kg CO2-eq/kilogram FPCM. Enteric fermentation was the most potent contributor to GHG, contributing around 35.5% of the total emissions, followed by manure management (13.8%) and soil management (8.2%). Further studies to accurately estimate carbon footprint are advocated besides suggesting ways to reduce GHG emissions and using efficient production technologies.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due to some institutional reasons but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension Education, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, 125004, India

    Rakesh Kumar & Ekta Rani

  2. Professor and Head of the Department, Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension Education, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, 125004, India

    Gautam Singh

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  1. Rakesh Kumar
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  2. Gautam Singh
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  3. Ekta Rani
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Rakesh Kumar and Ekta Rani. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Gautam Singh, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ekta Rani.

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Kumar, R., Singh, G. & Rani, E. Impact of smallholder cattle farms on the environment: a study. Trop Anim Health Prod 55, 236 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03652-x

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