UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) has said that farmers could earn more and protect the
environment by using technologies and practices that reduce the global warming
gases that livestock emit.
This statement was
issued by the FAO in its report of five case studies which suggested that the potential
for mitigation is greatest among low-productivity ruminant producers in South
Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.
NaijaAgroNet gathered from the report of the study that raising livestock such as
pigs, cattle and poultry generates climate-altering gases with an impact
equivalent to 7.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, representing 14.5
per cent of all human-caused greenhouse gas (GHC) emissions.
According to the
report the challenge stem from reducing emissions while meeting the soaring demand
for livestock products which is a demand that is projected to rise by more than
70 per cent between 2005 and 2050.
The FAO's Assistant
Director-General for Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Ren Wang said that “only
10 per cent of producers currently use technologies which could, if taken up
more widely, cut the emissions from all livestock species by up to 30 per cent
while boosting production. Currently, the majority of the livestock sector's
emissions originate from cattle, with beef production contributing 41 per cent
and cattle milk production contributing 20 per cent.
“In terms of
activities, the worst culprit is feed production and processing, which accounts
for 45 per cent of emissions from livestock-related practices. This is followed
by manure storage and processing, which is responsible for ten per cent of
these emissions. In the case of ruminants, such as cattle, buffalo, sheep and
goats, using better quality feeds would lower the amount of methane they emit
during digestion as well as the quantity of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide
released by their decomposing manure.”
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