Climate Change and Agriculture PhD Research Proposal Sample

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PHD RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON

CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE Climate change is now recognized as one of the biggest and most serious challenges for the planet - humanity, the human environment and the world economy. There is now evident scientific evidence that high concentrations of gases in the atmosphere that cause greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the reason for global warming. And while the world has faced climatic changes before, this is the first time that they appear as a result of human influence. It is a challenge that we can and must deal with. It is believed that most of the global warming we are witnessing today is caused by the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as a result of human activities, especially changes in the use of soil by deforestation, as well as the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). Europe is warmer by almost 1 ° C in the last century, which is more and more rapidly than the global average (Ramakrishna et al., 2006). Climatic conditions have become more variable. Rainfall and snowfall increased significantly in Northern Europe, while precipitation was significantly reduced, and droughts were more common in Southern Europe. Temperatures are becoming more extreme and at the same time floods are becoming more and more common. While individual weather phenomena cannot be attributed to one single cause, statistical analyzes show that the risk of such events is significantly increased as a result of climate change. Economic losses caused by weather and catastrophes have increased significantly over recent years. Given its wide range of effects, climate change, both in the medium and long term, will have a major impact on changing policy making. Today, climate change is a twofold challenge: how to reduce the release of greenhouse gases that are the causes of global warming (known as mitigation of impact); and how to adapt to current and future climate change in order to reduce the negative impact that will have on us adaptation. The changing climate is a very big challenge for agriculture in the process of shaping agricultural policies. This brochure explains how the European Union's agriculture is affected by, and how it affects global warming, and how the agricultural sector and the EU agricultural policy can be tackled with the double challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to the presumed effect climate change.

Agriculture needs to tackle the double challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to the expected effects of climate change. Agriculture also releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but this is relatively less in comparison with other economic sectors. Agriculture can also offer solutions to the challenges of climate change in the EU. Agriculture is an important

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CLIMATE CHANGE SAMPLE AND AGRICULTURE

source of two powerful greenhouse gases: nitrogen oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4): • The N20 is released into the atmosphere most often as a result of microbial transformation of nitrogen fertilizers in the soil; the production of N20 in agriculture accounts for more than half of the total emissions from agriculture; • The release of CH4 is the commonest result of intestinal fermentation in ruminants (stomach fermentation) • Emissions of N2O and CH4 are the result of the storage of manure fertilizers - the decomposition of manure stored under conditions of reduced oxygenation as well as its disintegration in fields and other agricultural lands (Lobell et al., 2008). Agriculture almost does not release carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere - the widespread greenhouse gas in the atmosphere (see emission measurement data). On the contrary, agricultural land, which occupies half of the territory of the EU, contains large quantities of carbon reserves, which helps to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The climate that is changing is also a major challenge for agriculture and the formation of agricultural policy. This brochure explains how EU agriculture is endangered and how it affects global warming, as well as how the sector and the EU agricultural policy can be tackled with the double challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to the projected impact of climate change. Climate change affects many economic sectors, and agriculture is one of the most demanding, because agricultural products are directly dependent on climatic factors. Access to natural resources (land, air, water) is crucial for the survival of agriculture. This is equally important for everyone in Europe, because arable land, forests and forest land cover almost 90% of the EU area. Climate variability is one of the main reasons one year, which leads to a change in annual harvests and presents an unavoidable risk of agricultural production. Therefore, agriculture is in the first struggles in the fight against the effects of climate change. Adaptation is a critical challenge for agriculture and rural areas. At global level, emissions are calculated by sector using standard IPCC methods for enumeration of greenhouse gases. All EU Member States are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and report on their annual emissions of greenhouse gases in accordance with a common framework for reports. The list of gases in agriculture includes emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrogen oxide (N2O). Both gases are usually converted to CO2 equivalent because it is a way to match their different global warming potentials. CO2 emissions generated from agricultural machinery, facilities and farms are not included in the category agriculture, but in the list of "energy" gases. The extraction of carbon from agricultural land and cultures is also not part of agricultural budgets, but is reported through a section called "Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry".

Therefore, measurement of emissions in agriculture is much more difficult than in other industrial activities, due to the complex biological and ecological processes involved in the release of gases from agricultural systems. The methodology for calculating emissions combines the use of countryspecific data (number of animals, area of planted agro-cultures, use of fertilizers) and standard factors that influence the release of gases (i.e. the amount of CH4 per animal). For example: the

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CLIMATE CHANGE SAMPLE AND AGRICULTURE

amount of CH4 released during the digestion process in ruminants is calculated according to the number of animals multiplied by the factor of the release of gases per animal. These emission factors are unsafe and conceal important sources of spatial variability and do not take into account many of the activities taken to mitigate the consequences in the agricultural sector. For example, emission data take into account the predicted changes in the amount of fertilizer use, but there are therefore no foreseen changes in the application technology or the composition of the fertilizer.

Therefore, it should be noted that the results do not accurately reflect the emissions from agriculture, because they include too many uncertain factors. The conclusion is that the monitoring methodology needs to be developed, with the aim of increasing the accuracy of the greenhouse gas emissions assessment from agriculture. The trend of emission reductions, originating from agriculture, is largely the result of an improvement in the ease of agricultural practice (for example: using the latest technology in the use of fertilizers and better fertilization conditions), the implementation of the "Nitrate Directive" (which includes voluntary and mandatory rules for the use and use of fertilizers) and encouragement from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), such as stimulating direct payments to farmers if they apply and respect certain ecological conditions. In the period from 1990 to 2005, significant reductions occurred in the major sources of emissions in agriculture: ruminant methane and nitrogen oxide from the soil. Reducing the methane release (above 20%) of livestock is primarily a result of a drastic reduction in the number of throats. All Member States except Portugal and Spain have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from stomach fermentation in the survivors, and the newest Member States have the greatest success. The release of methane into the air, from manure, was also reduced by 9%, with the greatest improvement in corn prevention in the new Member States (Huntingford et al., 2005). Unlike other industries, the release of gases in agriculture cannot be easily controlled by pressing the switch on the machine.

The approach to sustainability of agriculture is to enable it to deliver certain ecological results while remaining a self-sustaining, competitive economic sector that has economic and social advantages.

Measures that contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the production of agricultural products are not always the result of the implementation of a specific change in climate change policy, but are driven by general agricultural and environmental policies aimed at the longterm sustainability of the sector.

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CLIMATE CHANGE SAMPLE AND AGRICULTURE

ReferencesÂ

Ramakrishna, Y. S., Rao, G .G. S. N., Rao, S. G. & Vijayakumar, P. (2006). Impact of climate change in Agriculture. In: Chadha, K. L. and Swaminathan, M. S. (ed.), Environment and Agriculture, New Delhi: Malhotra Publishing House. Lobell, D. B., Burke, M., Tebaldi, C., Mastrandrea, M., Falcon, W. & Naylor, R. (2008). Prioritizing climate change adaptation needs for food security in 2030. Science, 319, 607 - 10.

Jarvis, A., Lane, A. & Hijmans, R. J. (2007). The effect of climate change on crop wild relatives, Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, 126 (1/2), 13 - 23.

Huntingford, C., Lambert, F. H, Gash, J. H. C., Taylor, C. M. & Challinor, A. J. (2005). Aspects of climate change prediction relevant to crop productivity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B 360, 1999 - 2009.