Towards Carbon Positive Through Improved farming
Project Lead
Challenges
The agriculture sector is an important source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has a key role to play in helping to reduce net GHG emissions by sequestering carbon into the soil and vegetation. However, progress in achieving emission reductions in this sector has been slow. The climate change plan 2018-2032 requires the agriculture sector to achieve net zero emissions by 2045 necessitating a fundamental transformation of land use to deliver a low carbon, holistic, sustainable integrated food production systems. This needs widespread adoption of low emission farming practices. The organic carbon content of soils and GHG emissions from the agricultural sector cannot be easily measured, which is a key barrier for implementing programmes to achieve NetZero. There is a need for credible and reliable measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification platforms, both for national reporting, emissions trading and to track progress towards Net Zero.
Questions
Solutions
This project aims to better assess each mitigation practice for its additionality, permanence, and uncertainty in achieving Net Zero.
Improving national GHG inventory
We are focussing on developing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 3 methodologies using process-based models to reduce uncertainties in the current national GHG inventory. This involves:
- Developing national soil, climate, and farm management database.
- Bottom-up modelling and scenario analysis.
- Top-down modelling of GHG emissions using tall tower observatory.
Identify potential measures of GHG mitigation
We focus on two tasks: first to provide evidence of new GHG mitigation measures and second to identify region-specific GHG mitigation options using Tier 3 models. The former activity assesses the impacts on GHG emissions relative to current conventional crop management practices across six of the most grown arable crops in Scotland using the Centre for Sustainable Cropping, a platform that provides long-term baseline data and context for whole-system responses to an integrated management options. GHG emissions are highly variable over space and time.
GHG emissions from agriculture systems under contrasting environments can affect mitigation potential of practices. The UK has developed Tier 2 emission factors for agricultural systems which are based on country specific conditions, however, these emission factors may not apply for climate change projections. DNDC and ECOSSE process-based models can be used to predict the impact of various agriculture management practices on net GHG emissions. We are using these models to capture the interaction between management practices, climate, soil, and crop. We use upscaled DNDC and ECOSSE to find appropriate region-specific mitigation options and its potential to contribute to NetZero 2045.
Scalable digital carbon calculator to enable mitigation actions at farm level
This project is extending the development of a digital carbon calculator to estimate changes in soil carbon and GHG emissions to produce near real time GHG emission estimates from agriculture at national and farm scale. We are developing a prototype digital carbon calculator and mobile app with enhanced features widening its applicability to estimate GHG emissions in near-real time.
Co-production of outcomes with land managers and key stakeholders
We are involving farmers and key stakeholders in co-producing a farm level digital carbon calculator, to ensure that it meets their needs and is designed in a form accessible to them. We are conducting a literature review on land manager perceptions and behaviours relating to nutrient management, and hosting workshops exploring land manager nutrient management practices.
Life cycle analysis of agriculture commodities and potential towards net zero
This project is evaluating the environmental impacts of Scottish agricultural commodities, including imports and exports, and explore the potential changes in impacts and dangers of ‘off shoring’ emissions of switching to a future fully renewable energy scenario. This includes:
- Mapping agricultural commodities that are produced, imported and used nationally.
- Assessing the environmental impact of current key agricultural commodities.
- Assessing the change in environmental impact of agricultural commodities under a fully renewable energy scenario.
Progress
2023 / 2024
Year 2 highlights:
National database: A new integrated database combining soil, climate, and farm management information has been completed. This will help drive more accurate GHG models at the national level.
Farm system analysis: Researchers have assessed farm “circularity”, how efficiently resources are used and recycled, under different conditions, providing insights into more sustainable farming practices.
Emissions monitoring: Plans to use a tall tower observatory for top-down GHG monitoring were delayed due to commissioning issues, but other modelling work continues.
Crop impacts: Agronomic and yield data has been compiled to support analysis with the Cool Farm Tool, helping to understand how cropping systems can mitigate emissions.
Digital tools: Development of the RETINA mobile app continues, alongside new data collection to improve its accuracy. A stakeholder workshop tested the app and gathered views on the potential role of carbon markets in Scottish agriculture.
Carbon footprints: Models have been created to estimate the carbon footprints of key agricultural commodities and identify areas with the highest emissions.
2022 / 2023
The TRANSITION project is making strong progress in helping Scotland move towards net zero by improving how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from farming are measured, reduced, and reported.
Year 1 highlights:
Better data for Scotland: A comprehensive dataset of soil, climate, and farm management information has been created to strengthen the national GHG inventory. Using long-term data from Balruddery farm, researchers compared sustainable and conventional management, showing how farming practices affect soil carbon and emissions.
Mitigation options: Analysis suggests that crop diversification, low-nitrification practices, and growing more grain legumes could help Scotland’s agri-food system meet GHG targets and reduce nitrogen surplus.
Digital tools for farmers: A prototype mobile app, RETINA, has been developed to help farmers record activities, assess carbon sequestration, and identify mitigation options. At the same time, new technologies are being trialled – such as soil sensors, drones, and biomass models – to monitor carbon and crop production more accurately.
Understanding farmer behaviour: A review of research and evidence has been completed to help design workshops with farmers and stakeholders, focusing on what drives decision-making around climate-friendly practices.
Life cycle analysis (LCA): Early results show the UK is a net importer of cereals and grains, with barley and oats as the main exceptions. In 2021–22, the UK exported just over 2.1 million tonnes of cereals, but imported more than 10.2 million tonnes from 88 countries, mostly from outside the EU.
Previous Projects
Related Projects
Improving existing green house gas reduction measures
The aim of this research is to address some key farm-level and policy-level issues to help develop policies in Scotland and more widely in the UK and in Europe, as part of a wider national and international research programme. The research includes a combination of environmental economic modelling, survey work and development of monitoring and evaluation tools and approaches. Specifically, focus is placed on providing improved understanding and estimates of agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation at national and farm level and developing tools for policy makers, farmers and researchers.
Novel Crops
Novel Crops: To address opportunities for producing alternative protein and carbohydrate crops in Scottish agriculture for fish and crustacean feed, bioenergy, bio-refining, animal feed and human consumption, and to develop design criteria for integrating suitable alternative legume and non-legume crops as sole and intercrops within rotations whilst also accounting for agronomic and ecosystem services.
There are two main areas of research: