Tropes

ScienceDaily_2013 06394.txt

#Grassroots action in livestock feeding to help curb global climate changein a series of papers to be presented next week scientists offer new evidence that a potent chemical mechanism operating in the roots of a tropical grass used for livestock feed has enormous potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Referred to as biological nitrification inhibition or BNI the mechanism markedly reduces the conversion of nitrogen applied to soil as fertilizer into nitrous oxide according to papers prepared for the 22nd International Grasslands Congress. Nitrous oxide is the most powerful and aggressive greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 300 times that of carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide makes up about 38 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture which accounts for almost a third of total emissions worldwide said Michael Peters who leads research on forages at the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical agriculture (CIAT ) a member of the CGIAR Consortium. BNI offers what could be agriculture's best bet for keeping global climate change within manageable limits. Scientists at CIAT and the Japan International Research center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) have researched BNI collaboratively for the last 15 years. This approach offers tremendous possibilities to reduce nitrous oxide emissions and the leaching of polluting nitrates into water supplies while also raising crop yields through more efficient use of nitrogen fertilizer said G. V. Subbarao a senior scientist at JIRCAS. As a result of recent advances scientists have developed the means to exploit the BNI phenomenon on a large scale: Livestock production provides livelihoods for a billion people but it also contributes about half of agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions Peters explained. BNI is a rare triple-win technology that's good for rural livelihoods as well as the global environment and climate. It defies the widespread notion that livestock are necessarily in the minus column of any food security and environmental calculation. The problem is that today's crop and livestock systems are said very'leaky Subbarao. About 70 percent of the 150 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer applied globally is lost through nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emissions; the lost fertilizer has estimated an annual value of US$90 billion. BNI has huge possibilities for reducing nitrogen leakage said CIAT scientist Idupulapati Rao. Grassland pastures are the single biggest use of agricultural land--covering 3. 2 billion hectares out of a global total of 4. 9 billion. In Brazil alone 11 million hectares of grassland have been converted to maize and soybean production and another 35-40 million could be shifted to crop production in the near future. Instead of more monocropping developing countries need to integrate Brachiaria grasses into mixed crop-livestock systems on a massive scale to make them more sustainable. Originally from Sub-saharan africa Brachiaria grasses found their way to South america centuries ago--possibly as bedding on slave ships Improved varieties of the grass are grown widely on pasturelands in Brazil Colombia and other countries and they have recently been taken back to Africa to help ease severe shortages of livestock Feed in a major breakthrough JIRCAS scientists discovered several years ago the chemical substance responsible for BNI and developed a reliable method for detecting the nitrification inhibitor coming from plant roots. Scientists at CIAT then validated the BNI concept in the field demonstrating that Brachiaria grass suppresses nitrification and nitrous oxide emissions compared with soybean which lacks this ability. Other research has shown that deep-rooted productive Brachiaria grasses capture large amounts of atmospheric carbon--on a scale similar to that of tropical forests--a further plus for climate change mitigation. Our work on BNI started with a field observation made by one of our scientists in the 1980s--back then it was nothing more than a dream said Peters. But now it's a dream with an action plan and solid scientific achievements behind it. BNI research forms part of a larger initiative referred to as Livestockplus which proposes to deliver major benefits for the poor and the environment through innovative research on tropical forage grasses and legumes. The Livestockplus initiative takes place within the global framework of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish led by the Kenya-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The program aims to increase the availability and affordability of meat milk and fish for poor consumers and raise the incomes of smallholders producing these commodities. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Burness Communications. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h

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