|
Thakshala Seresinhe
Emeritus Professor, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Mapalana, Kamburupitiya, Sri Lanka.
Abstract
In animal agriculture, the greatest contributors to methane emissions are enteric fermentation and
manure management. Enteric methane emissions were higher with ruminant animals while manure storage methane was higher
with swine and poultry. The main course of agricultural nitrous oxide emissions is from the application of nitrogen
fertilizers and animal manures. The most cost-effective way to reduce CH4 production is to improve feed efficiency.
In low-intensity systems, CH4 production per unit product can be markedly reduced by improving feed quality and feeding
intensity. Inhibition of methanogens, involvement of other H2 alternative sinks e.g. inclusion of dietary fat, can result
in a reasonable reduction in CH4 production. Generally, some feed additives such as condensed tannins (CTs), fibrolytic
enzymes and other factors e.g. methane inhibitors, vaccines, defaunating agents etc, have the potential to mitigate CH4
production from ruminants. However, there are also some disadvantages, e.g. they are costly and not economical to apply at
the farm level, and many have only short-term effects on CH4 production thereby diluting the maintenance costs. The range
of global mitigation potential to improve carbon sequestration and other factors are documented. Global and Sri Lankan
scenarios on emissions and emission intensities from dairy production and the mitigating options are discussed. It is
highlighted that removing animal agriculture is not a good solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is also
suggested that combining productivity increases in crop and livestock sectors appears to be the most efficient way to
exploit mitigation and food security co-benefits.
Keywords:
Dairy cows, Enteric methane, Emission intensity feed efficiency, Mitigating ability, Ruminant
Full Text : pdf
(742kb)
* - Corresponding Author
|
