The role of soils in provision of energy

Acknowledgments The inputs of J.S. and D.N. contributes to the Newton Bhabha Virtual Centre on Nitrogen Efficiency in Whole Cropping Systems (NEWS) project no. NEC 05724, the DFID-NERC El Niño programme in project NE P004830, ‘Building Resilience in Ethiopia’s Awassa Region to Drought’ (BREAD), the ESRC NEXUS programme in project IEAS/POO2501/1, ‘Improving Organic Resource Use in Rural Ethiopia’ (IPORE), and the GCRF South Asian Nitrogen Hub (NE/S009019/1). The input of J.F. and J.S. contributes to the NERC funded Global Methane project, MOYA (NE/N016211/1). The input of P.S. contributes to the UKRI-funded projects DEVIL (NE/M021327/1), Soils-R-GRREAT (NE/P019455/1) and N-Circle (BB/N013484/1), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme projects CIRCASA (grant agreement no. 774378) and UNISECO (grant agreement no. 773901), and the Wellcome Trust-funded project Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS).Peer reviewedPostprin

Potential yield challenges to scale-up of zero budget natural farming

We thank V. Kumar, Z. Hussain and R. Nalavade of RySS for information, support while visiting sites and discussions. Funding for this work was provided by the Newton Bhabha Virtual Centre on Nitrogen Efficiency in Whole Cropping Systems (NEWS) project no. NEC 05724, the DFID-NERC El Niño programme in project NE P004830, ‘Building Resilience in Ethiopia’s Awassa Region to Drought’ (BREAD), the ESRC NEXUS programme in project IEAS/POO2501/1, ‘Improving Organic Resource Use in Rural Ethiopia’ (IPORE), and the GCRF South Asian Nitrogen Hub (NE/S009019/1). J.Y. was supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Research and Analysis Directorate under the current Strategic Research Programme (2016–2021): Research Deliverable 1.1.3: Soils and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The input of P.S. contributes to the UKRI-funded projects DEVIL (NE/M021327/1), Soils-R-GRREAT (NE/P019455/1) and N-Circle (BB/N013484/1), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme projects CIRCASA (grant agreement no. 774378) and UNISECO (grant agreement no. 773901), and the Wellcome Trust-funded project Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS).Peer reviewedPostprin

CCAFS-MOT - A tool for farmers, extension services and policy-advisors to identify mitigation options for agriculture

This work was implemented as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors (RG12839-10) and through bilateral funding agreements. For details please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organizations. This work has also been partially funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Methane emissions from rice paddies globally: A quantitative statistical review of controlling variables and modelling of emission factors

Funding Information: This work was funded by Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Kellogg's and the University of Aberdeen . We are grateful for the help and advice from modellers, stakeholders, the cool farm alliance (CFA) and those who by their publications on GHG emissions from rice paddies have made this work possible. Special thanks to the cool farm alliance, stakeholders, experts, and modellers who have helped us improve our understanding and guided us in the right direction when needed given the Covid pandemic restrictions, making project engagement between those involved limited to online engagement. Publisher Copyright: © 2023Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Modelling CH4 emission from rice ecosystem: A comparison between existing empirical models

Rice is a staple food for more than three billion people and accounts for up to 11% of the global methane (CH4) emissions from anthropogenic sources. With increasing populations, particularly in less developed countries where rice is a major cereal crop, production continues to increase to meet demand. Implementing site-specific mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice is important to minimise climate change. Measuring greenhouse gases is costly and time-consuming; therefore, many farmers, supply chains, and scientists rely on greenhouse gas accounting tools or internationally acceptable methodologies (e.g., Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to estimate emissions and explore mitigation options. In this paper, existing empirical models that are widely used have been evaluated against measured CH4 emission data. CH4 emission data and management information were collected from 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Model input variables such as soil organic carbon (SOC), pH, water management during crop season and pre-season, and organic amendment application were collected and used for estimation of CH4 emission. The performance of the models was evaluated by comparing the predicted emission values against measured emissions with the result showing that the models capture the impact of different management on emissions, but either under- or overestimate the emission value, and therefore are unable to capture the magnitude of emissions. Estimated emission values are much lower than observed for most of the rice-producing countries, with R correlation coefficient values varying from −0.49 to 0.87 across the models. In conclusion, current models are adequate for predicting emission trends and the directional effects of management, but are not adequate for estimating the magnitude of emissions. The existing models do not consider key site-specific variables such as soil texture, planting method, cultivar type, or growing season, which all influence emissions, and thus, the models lack sensitivity to key site variables to reliably predict emissions

Changes in soil properties following the establishment of exclosures in Ethiopia : a meta-analysis

Acknowledgements This work is part of the RALENTIR (Reducing land degradation and carbon loss from Ethiopia's soils to strengthen livelihoods and resilience) project, funded by GCRF (Global Challenges Research Fund) and University of Aberdeen. We are grateful to Abeyou Wale for his assistance in developing the map of agroecological zones of Ethiopia.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A global methane model for rice cropping systems: Final Report

It has been estimated that rice production accounts for up to 55% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions budget from agricultural soils. Finding efficient ways to mitigate these emissions without adversely impacting yield is crucial as rice is a major cereal crop for half of the world’s population and with production being estimated to increase by up to 40% by 2040 to meet demands. Emissions are challenging to measure and thus finding field-specific mitigation options is difficult; many therefore rely on GHG tools to explore suitable mitigation strategies. We have collected field data from across the world from peer- reviewed publications pre-2021, by evaluating the influence of different factors on methane (CH4) fluxes, and using a step-down approach, a new CH4 model was created using the linear mixed model in Rstudio. The new model has five additional factors and uses a different climate classification compared to existing models. Baseline emission factors (EFs) were estimated using the predicted data. Result shows that the difference between tropical and temperate regions needs to be considered when calculating an EF. By having different pre- season water management as a baseline, more accurate EFs can be estimated, particularly for temperate and American rice regions as the existing EF uses a baseline of short drainage, which is not common in these regions that typically have a long drainage duration and only one rice crop cycle per year. Evaluation of the new model against existing models shows the new model performs better, with R values of 0.602 while other models produce R2 in the range of 0.11-0.37. The new model could be more sensitive to capture management practice differences between tropical and temperate rice and their impact on CH4 emission. Keywords: Agriculture; climate change; food systems; food security; rice; methane; greenhouse gas emissions

Climate Smart agricultural practices improve soil quality through organic carbon enrichment and lower greenhouse gas emissions in farms of bread bowl of India

Acknowledgements The authors are thankful to NEWS India-UK for providing the first author Fellowship during the study. We are also grateful to CCAFS-CIMMYT for allowing us to collect soil samples from climate smart villages of Karnal, Haryana. The help received from Kartar Singh during soil analysis, and Kapil, Rakesh, Rajinder and Anil during field survey and sample collection is gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which significantly improved the quality of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Disaggregated N2O emission factors in China based on cropping parameters create a robust approach to the IPCC Tier 2 methodology

Acknowledgements This work was funded by Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK under the UK-China Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN; Project DC09-06). Rothamsted Research receives strategic funding by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).Peer reviewedPublisher PD