Climate change and livestock : Impacts and mitigation

    02-Oct-2022
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P Mayengbam and TC Tolenkhomba
Contd from last Saturday
The resource poor farmers under stressful climatic conditions and different agro-ecological regions have tremendous adaptive capacity to changing conditions, but the current climate changes are occurring at the pace not seen historically, therefore, the adaptation ill be less than the pace of changes occurring (Upadhyay et al., 2013). In general, faster the climate changes, the greater the impact on people, ecosystems and efficiency. People, animals and the natural environment have become particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Mitigation measures
There is potential to reduce livestock sector GHG emissions through the implementation of different technologies and practices. However, they are not widely used (Gerber et al., 2013). Some of the technical options for mitigating the impact of livestock on climate change are carbon sequestration, improving diets to reduce enteric fermentation, improving manure management, and more efficient use of fertilizers (Steinfeld et al., 2006; Thornton and Gerber, 2010; UNFCCC, 2008). Mitigation measures need public policy support to e effective (Dickie et al., 2014).
Enteric fermentation
Carbon sequestration can be achieved through decreasing deforestation rates, reversing of deforestation by replanting (Carvalho et al., 2004), targeting for higher-yielding crops with better climate change adapted varieties, and improvement of land and water management (Steinfeld et al., 2006). Soil organic carbon can be restored in cultivated soils through conservation tillage, erosion reduction, soil acidity management, double-cropping, crop rotations, higher crop residues, mulching and more (Paustian et al., 1997; Steinfeld et al., 2006). Improving pasture management can also lead to carbon sequestration by incorporating trees, improving pant species, legume interceding, introducing earthworms, and fertilization (Conant et al., 2001). In addition, grass productivity and soil carbon sequestration could be improved by increasing grazing pressure in grasslands that have a lower amount of grazing animals than the livestock carrying capacity (Holland et al., 1992). Improving grazing land management could sequester around 0.15 gigatons CO2-eq yr1 globally (Henderson et al., 2015).
(To be contd)