Farmers can reduce their carbon footprint, but not perhaps in
the way they were expecting. That was one of the conclusions of the
recent
Nuffield Carbon Farming Conference.
Organised by the
Nuffield Farming
Scholarships Trust and the Frank Arden Memorial Award, it gave
a chance to hear some of the latest research into how farmers can
work out how much carbon they currently produce - and reduce
it.
Some of the key conclusions were
- It is important that the industry does not over-emphasise the
role of carbon sequestration. On typical farms, sequestration of
carbon makes no more than a small contribution to tackling climate
change.
- By adopting Level I Carbon Stewardship practices, farmers can
reduce their on-farm emissions of greenhouse gases. Level I
practices are available, can be adopted immediately and do not
involve radical changes. - Renewable energy production can help to reduce net CO2 release
on farm and may also offer alternative income opportunities.
- There are many opportunities for farmers to become involved
with the emergent renewable energy sector either as individuals or
by working with other partners. The latest round of RDPE grants
encourage farmers to set up collaborative projects.
- Heat-only biomass systems are the easiest to justify
economically and are technologically stable. Combustion- based
combined heat and power (CHP) systems that produce both heat and
electricity look the least attractive both financially and
technologically, especially on a small scale.
- On-farm anaerobic digestion (biogas) systems appear
economically marginal unless the value of the slurry disposal
benefits and perhaps the heat produced are taken into account in
the financial justification. Recent rises is the value of arable
crops (and hence land value) have challenged some of the existing
European on-farm anaerobic digestion business models. - More collaboration is needed within the industry to champion
the role of land managers in mitigating the effects of climate
change, in a similar way to the work done by
Carbon Farmers of
America.
- The current bad press for bio-fuels' carbon footprint could be
improved if the majority of wheat destined for bioethanol plants
was grown using minimum cultivations techniques.