Farm Management Solution for Climate Action

Agriculture is dependent on natural resources like water, soil and weather conditions. Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns affect crop yields, quality of crops, causes soil erosion and degradation and increases pests and diseases. Agriculture is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and activities like fertilizer use and livestock farming contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Farm Management solution are practices that can help farmers to adopt these practices and increase resilience to climate change. 

Climate change is caused due to the change in global weather patterns caused by human activities like deforestation and burning of fossil fuel. These changes result in weather extremities like droughts, floods and heatwaves. 

Sustainable agriculture practices like conservation tillage, cover cropping and crop rotation along with precision agriculture help farmers to adapt to climate change on their farms.. It also helps to increase yields, reduce costs and provide economic benefit to farmers. Let us see how Farm management solution help in reducing GHG emissions, improve soil health and provide economic benefits to farmers.

Sustainable agriculture practices such as reducing tillage, optimizing fertilizer use and integrating crop and livestock systems can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming by up to 50%. 

How Farm Management Solution Can Reduce GHG emissions 

Agriculture production emissions arise from livestock farming, application of nitrogen fertilizers, rice cultivation and energy use. Greenhouse gases trap the heat from the sun and prevent it from escaping into space creating a blanket around our planet resulting in Global warming. The GHGs include Carbon dioxide, Methane and Nitrous oxide all of which are released during farm activities. The increasing emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere means we are not on target to keep the global temperature rise at 1.5˚C. 

A number of agriculture practices can solve some of the problems of excess carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases through carbon sinking. Changing on-farm practices, including sustainable livestock management can reduce the amount of GHG emissions. 

Let us see what practices can be adopted to reduce these GHG emissions:

Reduce Emissions from Fertilizers 

Fertilizers applied to crops and pastures, including both synthetic and manure ones are responsible for emissions, mostly resulting from manufacture, transportation and application of nitrogen. Globally, the crops absorb less than half of the nitrogen applied, remaining runs off into the ground waters causing pollution and some escape into the air as nitrous oxide. The nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is the percentage of nitrogen that is absorbed by crops rather than lost to the environment. 

Mitigation strategies are based on agronomic practices where farmers are willing to assess nitrogen needs and apply them in required amounts over the course of a growing season. However, intensive management is expensive compared to cheap nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrification inhibitors and enhanced efficiency fertilizers increase the NUE, reduce nitrous oxide emissions and also increase yields. 

Reduced Emissions from Rice Cultivation 

Rice is one of the world’s dominant staple foods and is critical for global food security. The production of flooded rice contributes to around 9 to 11% agricultural emissions in the form of methane and are water intensive There are practices that can reduce these emissions and also provide higher yields with less water usage. 

Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation practice in Rice (AWD) is a water management practice that reduces water use and limits the GHG emissions in irrigated rice fields. The rice straw from paddies can also be removed before flooding to reduce methane production. 

Reduced Emissions from Livestock 

Ruminant livestock mainly cattle, sheep and goats generate roughly half of the agriculture production emissions. The largest source is methane from enteric fermentation generated by microbes in the ruminant stomachs. Feeding livestock with high quality feed that is easily digestible can reduce methane emissions. This can be achieved by providing quality forages or supplementing feeds with additives like probiotics. 

Reduced Emissions from Manure Management 

Livestock manure is a significant source of methane emissions. Managed manure generates both methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Pigs generate half of these emissions, dairy cows just over one-third and beef cows roughly 15%. Proper management of manure, including its storage and  disposal can reduce these emissions. Anaerobic digesters can be used to convert manure into biogas which can be used as an energy source. The nitrogen deposited in feces and urine turns into nitrous oxide at roughly twice the rate of nitrogen in fertilizer. Chemical nitrification inhibitors help in addressing these emissions. 

Reduced Emissions with Grazing Management and Breeding 

• Proper grazing management(Rotational grazing  

 can reduce emissions by increasing the amount of carbon in the soil. Sustainable grassland management practices like rotating pastures, reduced overgrazing and planting grass that sequester smore carbon are effective in realizing reduced emissions. 

Breeding livestock for lower methane emissions helps to reduce emissions over time. Breeding animals that produce fewer emissions can be effective in reducing the emissions. 

Reduced Emissions from Energy Sources 

Emissions from fossil energy use in agriculture contribute to emissions. The use of diesel fuel tractors, heavy equipment and on-farm energy use contributes to these emissions. Mitigation options include switching to renewable energy sources and providing the heating and electric power by solar and wind energy sources. 

Improving Soil Health 

Healthy soils play a critical role in mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon and reducing soil erosion. Soil organic carbon is organic matter made up of decaying plant and animal matter which is a significant store of carbon. Soil health can be removed through practices like reduced tillage, cover cropping, crop rotation. These practices help to increase soil organic carbon and withstand extremities in weather thereby reducing erosion and avoiding loss of topsoil. 

Technology interventions with Farm Management Software   

Data collection and analysis plays a major role in implementing farm management solution for climate action. Collecting data on farming practices, soil health, and environmental factors can help farmers to identify areas for improvement and take informed decisions about the effective  solutions. The farmers can accordingly adjust their practices and ensure the desired outcomes. 

Farmers can collect data on soil organic matter and nutrient use and make appropriate decisions. Collecting data on water use and irrigation helps to optimize water usage leading to reduced costs and saving of natural resources. 

Farm Management Solution are not just about reducing greenhouse gas emissions but about building more resilient and sustainable agriculture systems that can adapt to the challenges of climate change. 

Farm management software helps farmers with tools and information to optimize their farming practices and reduce carbon footprint.

• Precision farming helps to reduce usage of inputs like water, fertilizer and pesticides, that leads to less GHG emissions. 
• Measurement of data is critical and data analytics can help to collect and analyze data for better decision making. Data sets like soil moisture levels, crop growth rates and weather conditions can be monitored, and operations can be optimized to reduce inputs like water and fertilizer thereby reducing emissions. 
• Carbon accounting of farm production helps to identify hot spots and adopt reduction strategies. The emissions due to energy use, fertilizers, livestock can be monitored and tracked. Mitigation strategies can be tracked towards emission reduction goals. 
• Reporting of emissions helps in Regulatory compliance. The capture of data and sharing of information among the stakeholders helps the farmers to keep accurate records of activities performed. 

Farm Management software helps to make data driven decisions and reduce the carbon footprint, assuring a sustainable farming industry. Leveraging blockchain technology to Farm management solution gives an extra edge of transparency and credibility. 

TraceX’s blockchain powered Farm management solution and Trace CO2 , the carbon management platform assures a viable and efficient solution to implement farm management solution for climate action. See how traceability provides a foundation for mitigating effects due to climate change. 

Benefits of Blockchain powered Farm Management 

• Supply chain traceability allows farmers to track the movement of produce from farm to fork. This helps to reduce emissions by enabling efficient supply chain optimization related to shipping and logistics and inventory management to reduce  waste. 
• Tracking of Package of Practices at the farm level helps the farmers to adhere to sustainable practices and measure and manage the carbon footprint more accurately. 
• Smart contracts help to automate farm management processes thereby increasing the operational efficiency and reducing costs. 
• Generation of carbon credits incentivizes farmers for following practices to reduce emissions. Blockchain solutions increase the credibility of credits in the voluntary carbon markets and help in carbon trading. 
• Data Security and accuracy is ensured with immutable ledgers that provide a single source of truth for all the stakeholders and for regulatory compliance. 

Conclusion 

Farm management solution play a crucial role in mitigating climate change impacts by reducing GHG emissions and promoting sustainable practices. Through the adoption of technologies, farmers can optimize their operations and minimize their carbon footprint. Implementing regenerative practices like conservation tillage, crop rotation and cover crops can enhance soil health, improve yields and sequester carbon. These solutions help in creating sustainable and resilient futures for people and the planet. 

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