Global warming is one of the most profound challenges for human beings during the 21st century. The world's leading scientists have identified that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level. Such changes are predicted to significantly impact the natural environment, agriculture, water resources, social systems, and human health at least over this century. The prime challenge to our society is to control both present and future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and agree upon the maximum permissible levels of their concentration in the atmosphere.
According to the latest Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, agriculture currently emits 6.1 Pg of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) GHGs into the atmosphere each year, or about 14% of the emissions from all anthropogenic sources, and about the same as the transport and stationary energy sectors (IPCC Citation2007). Agricultural soils and livestock production contribute approximately 40% of global methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, and agricultural soils further act as atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) sources or sinks. Changes in land use and management influence source or sink status by affecting the carbon budget of the plant-soil system. It is suggested that agricultural emissions of GHGs could increase by 30% to 40% in 2050, as the world agricultural sector seeks to meet an expected doubling of demand for food (Shafer et al. Citation2011). These data clearly show the importance of finding measures to mitigate GHG emissions from agriculture, and of implementing them at the farm level around the world.
The good news, on the other hand, is that there are many opportunities to mitigate agricultural GHG emissions or to enhance soil carbon sequestration through improved technologies for the management of agricultural land and livestock production (Smith et al. Citation2007). Over the last three decades already, scientific knowledge of agricultural management and GHG emissions has been accumulated from process studies, field monitoring, and modeling approaches. As a result, a number of promising options to mitigate GHG emissions from agricultural land and livestock production have been proposed. However, there is still a need to improve the sharing of knowledge of the mitigation options among researchers and policy makers in different regions of the world.
To address these issues, an International Workshop on Technology Development for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture was held from November 15 to 17, 2011, at the Tsukuba International Congress Center in Tsukuba, Japan, jointly organized by the Monsoon Asia Agro-Environmental Research Consortium (MARCO) and sponsored by the National Institute for Agro-Environmental Science (NIAES). The Workshop was supported by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (JSSSPN), and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). The workshop hosted 20 oral and 16 poster presentations designed to communicate current understanding and to bridge knowledge gaps regarding mitigation of agricultural GHG emissions. More than 120 participants from 17 countries were attracted to discuss many aspects of cropland- and livestock production-related greenhouse gas emissions, including monitoring, modeling, and mitigation options. Participants also explored future research directions and cooperation. Abstracts and presentations in the Workshop can be downloaded from the MARCO website at http://www.niaes.affrc.go.jp/marco/2011workshop/.
For this Special Issue of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (SSPN), one review article and nine full-length papers were carefully selected from the oral and poster presentations at this workshop. These papers were submitted and peer reviewed by entirely the same processes as other papers published in SSPN.
We would like to thank all the individuals and institutions that supported the workshop and the SSPN Editorial Board for giving us the opportunity to publish this Special Issue.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kazuyuki Yagi
†On behalf of the organizing committee of the MARCO Workshop on Technology Development for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from AgricultureNotes
†On behalf of the organizing committee of the MARCO Workshop on Technology Development for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture
References
- IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) . 2007 . Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , Edited by: Pachauri , RK and Reisinger , A . Geneva, Switzerland : IPCC .
- Shafer , SR , Walthall , CL Franzluebbers , AJ . 2011 . Emergence of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases . Carbon Management , 2 : 209 – 214 .
- Smith , P , Martino , D Cai , Z . 2007 . “ Agriculture ” . In Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , Edited by: Metz , B , Davidson , OR , Bosch , PR , Dave , R and Meyer , LA . 497 – 540 . Cambridge, UK and New York, NY : Cambridge University Press .