The role of crop cultivation in contributing to climate change

Publication date: 27/04/2020
Extent: 30 pages

Contributions by: Sonali Shukla McDermid and David Kanter, New York University, USA

Chapter synopsis: While 20th century gains in agricultural productivity enabled rising levels of food security, these developments have also made the food system a major contributor to global climate change. Agricultural production accounts for over 80% of food system emissions, and nearly 60% of global non-CO2 greenhouse gases. This chapter reviews the various GHG contributions from global crop cultivation, which is dominated by rice production, fertilizer management and landuse change on peatlands, but also has substantial contributions from crop residue management; cropland soil organic matter changes; and bioenergy production. The authors examine the state of knowledge and data availability on each of the above contributions, and the outstanding uncertainties in current estimates. The chapter also consider cropland GHG emissions in the context of food security and other sustainable development goals. Finally, the authors provide an overview how future scenarios of agricultural development can be used to project local and regional GHG emissions within integrated assessment frameworks.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2020.0064.09