Reducing nitrous oxide emissions from smallholder farmer agriculture through site-specific nutrient management

PxD and IGSD are partnering on an initiative to collaboratively identify opportunities for innovation in climate change mitigation, particularly for the greenhouse gases most problematic in agricultural production, methane, and nitrous oxide, as well as carbon dioxide. This initiative includes four analytical pieces on the opportunities for climate change mitigation by smallholder farmers.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is both an ozone-depleting substance that damages the stratospheric ozone layer and one of the most potent greenhouse gases (GHGs) contributing to global climate change. As with almost all GHG emissions linked to anthropogenic processes, N2O emissions have increased significantly in recent decades. Agriculture is the main driver for these increases,11 with up to 71% of the increase in emissions from the 1980s to 2007-2016 coming from direct agricultural emissions. In particular, scientists have pointed to the use of nitrogen fertilizer as a key reason for the increasing N2 O atmospheric burden. Most smallholder farmers rely on their own judgment or blanket nitrogen fertilizer recommendations, which can miss critical variations in soil and crop nitrogen needs. Offering farmers in the Global South an accessible and user-friendly way to use nitrogen more efficiently will thus not only help reduce the environmental impact of the use of nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture but also improve farmers’ productivity and profits. Addressing the precision nutrient management gap for smallholder farmers in the Global South is a critical priority for achieving both anti-poverty and climate change goals, especially as the use of nitrogen fertilizer in Global South countries rises in coming years to meet increasing global food demands.