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Carbon Footprints of Agriculture Sector

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Carbon Footprints

Abstract

Climate change being today’s major issue is concerned with the unprecedented increase in natural resource exploitation and uncontrolled population increase, reaching in an irreversible point. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) responsible for such changes are emitted by a variety of natural as well as anthropogenic sources. Agriculture sector shares a major proportion in total GHG emission. As the food demand is increasing with the rising population, the proportion of GHG emissions from agricultural sector is also increasing. The total amount of GHGs (in terms of carbon equivalent (C-eq)) emitted by the processes in agricultural sector is regarded as carbon footprint of agriculture. Various activities related to agriculture such as plowing, tilling, manuring, irrigation, variety of crops, rearing livestock, and related equipment emit a significant amount of GHGs that are categorized in three tiers of carbon footprinting, separated by hypothetical boundaries. The energy input through machinery, electricity, livestock management, and fossil fuel constitutes a major proportion of carbon emission through agriculture. Crop cultivation system mainly cereals produces higher GHGs than any other farming systems like vegetables and fruits. Beside this, land-use changes including conversion of natural ecosystem to agricultural, deforestation, and crop residue burning after harvest contribute significantly to higher carbon emission. This review article will focus on carbon footprint from agriculture including inputs for uses from energy, fertilizers, organic manure, pesticides, and processes that affect carbon emission from agriculture. The mitigation practices effective in reducing the carbon footprinting from various agricultural activities will also be reviewed. Efficient use of fossil fuel and other non-renewable energy sources in the agriculture system, diversified cropping system, enhancing soil carbon sequestration by straw return, plantation, etc., crop rotation system, and limiting deforestation will be discussed as measures which may help to reduce the GHG emissions from agriculture sector.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to APN project (CRRP2016-09MY-Lokupitiya) for financial support. Bhavna Jaiswal is thankful to University Grant Commission (UGC), New Delhi, for Junior Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Air Pollution and Global Climate Change, Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Bhavna Jaiswal & Madhoolika Agrawal

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  1. Bhavna Jaiswal
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  2. Madhoolika Agrawal
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Correspondence to Madhoolika Agrawal .

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  1. Head of Sustainability - SgT Group and API, Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu

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Jaiswal, B., Agrawal, M. (2020). Carbon Footprints of Agriculture Sector. In: Muthu, S. (eds) Carbon Footprints. Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7916-1_4

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