Agriculture sector green house emissions decline 3 pct in India

Emissions of harmful green house gases (GHG) from the agriculture sector in India declined 3 per cent in a period of about 13 years to 2007 due to the adoption of advanced farm technologies. CHG emissions declined from 344.48 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 1994 to 334.41 million tonnes in 2007, according to the government data.

The data has been provided by Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA), a programme that brings together over 120 institutions and over 220 scientists from across the country to undertake scientific assessments of different aspects of climate change. Agriculture has been seen as producing significant effects on climate change, primarily through the production and release of CHGs like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and also by altering the earth's land cover, which can change its ability to absorb or reflect heat and light, thus contributing to radiative forcing.

Methane and Nitrous Oxide are the two major GHGs emitted from rice ecosystems due to conventional method of rice cultivation, soil management and crop residue burning. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and different state Agricultural Universities (SAUs) have been evolving technologies to reduce these emissions without compromising the foodgrain production. These technologies include improved irrigation management, cultivation of aerobic rice, direct-seeded rice and system of rice intensification (SRI) and use of neem coated urea.

Recently, ICAR has initiated a programme "National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture" to strengthen the climate change resilient research in agriculture and allied sectors and demonstrate climate resilient technologies at farmers field.