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Exploring greenhouse gas mitigation strategies for agriculture in Africa: The case of Nigeria

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Abstract

We used the Agriculture and Land Use National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Software to estimate the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the Nigerian agriculture sector in 2010. We went ahead to project future GHG emissions up to 2050. Two alternative GHG mitigation scenarios such as moderate (MS) and aggressive (AS) scenarios were developed and examined. Our results showed that total GHG emissions from Nigerian agriculture in 2010 were around 34.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. GHG emissions from livestock accounted for about 69.2 % of the total emissions, making it the largest source of GHG emissions in the sector. Nigeria’s agriculture GHG emissions are expected to increase by 94 % in 2050 relative to 2010 levels. Mitigation strategies in the Nigerian agriculture sector that do not compromise food security are limited. However, with the implementation of different GHG mitigation strategies in the alternative scenarios, emissions are expected to fall by around 13.2 % and 26.7 % by 2050 in the MS and AS, respectively, compared to the baseline scenario. While the mitigation potentials are significant, we argue that robust and dedicated policies are required to accelerate climate-smart agriculture in Nigeria.

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Notes

  1. Information derived from World Economic Forum (WEF): https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/70-of-africans-make-a-living-through-agriculture-and-technology-could-transform-their-world/.

  2. More information on advantages of exponential smoothing: https://connectusfund.org/5-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-exponential-smoothing.

  3. For more details, see FAO statistical database: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QA.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Stephen Ogle of Colorado State University, USA for granting the license to use the ALU software program.

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  1. Department of Energy & Environment, TERI School of Advanced Studies, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 1100 70, India

    Michael O. Dioha & Atul Kumar

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Dioha, M.O., Kumar, A. Exploring greenhouse gas mitigation strategies for agriculture in Africa: The case of Nigeria. Ambio 49, 1549–1566 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01293-9

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