When former US President Barack Obama said, "We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation to do something about it," he underlined that climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity.
Nine of the ten warmest years on record have occurred in the last decade, making it impossible for anyone to ignore the effects of climate change. We need urgent action to stop greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and achieve net zero emissions. This requires international cooperation and agreements universally, rather than unilaterally agreeing to decarbonize industries we consider natural, such as fossil fuels and agriculture.
More than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, forestry and land use changes. Unless this issue is actively addressed, emissions from these sectors are likely to increase as the world population and need for food continue to grow. While the agriculture sector in India constitutes 19.6% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions, it is followed by electricity and heat production with 44%, and manufacturing, construction and energy sectors with 18%.
54.6% of agricultural emissions in India come from the livestock sector, 19% from methane emissions from enteric fermentation and the use of nitrogen fertilizers, 18.5% from rice cultivation under anaerobic conditions, 6.9% from livestock management and 2% from livestock management. ,1 of them come without burning stubble. It is therefore imperative to accelerate low-carbon solutions across all supply chains.
The global value of synthetic biology (synbio) technology and products is estimated to reach $20 billion by 2024. We have examples where advances in synthetic biology can now be used in many sectors, including agriculture.
Capture of Methane Emissions with Alternative Feed and Manure for Animals
According to 2019 figures, India has the largest cattle population in the world with 535.78 million. Livestock accounts for 78% of India's total methane emissions of 24 million tons, according to official data. Feeds used for animal feeding produce emissions of nitrous oxide, a GHG 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
When animals eat this feed and produce manure, it produces methane emissions 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
The act of plowing grasslands and forests to produce fodder for animals also releases carbon from the soil into the atmosphere. In contrast, alternative proteins produce less greenhouse gases and require less land. To meet the growing demand for protein targeting the feed and food industries, String Bio has developed a high quality protein component derived from methane with high levels of essential amino acids. An excellent substitute for marine and animal-based proteins, this crop and its use could free up land use to address food security and grow supplement crops.
Related Products
Reducing Nitrogen Fertilizer Inputs
Applications of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers account for approximately 80% of the nitrogen oxide emissions used to soil or pastures. Reducing reliance on these synthetic fertilizers is a matter of major concern and discussion for experts worldwide.
Ag-biotech startups are working on solutions to replace these synthetic fertilizers with sustainable bioproducts that will not only help reduce emissions but also boost productivity for farmers.
String Bio is the first company in the world to develop a microbial-based biostimulant called CleanRise and a peptide-based biostimulant called Impact, a methane-derived, chemical-free, natural biostimulant. Methane-derived biostimulants have many effects on plant growth, including improved vegetative growth and flowering, improved root development, better soil health, stress tolerance, and increased yields. They reduce the growing need for sustainable agricultural products, increased productivity per acre, and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
Growing Rice with Less Methane
Conservation and maintenance of wetland soils is essential to meet and sustain food production for future generations, as well as to protect endangered plant and wildlife species habitats. In Asia, wetlands have been used extensively for food production for thousands of years, with rice being the dominant product of the region. Rice is the world's most important wetland food crop and is under growing growing pressure every year. Rice and its products are expected to feed 10 billion people in the world over the next 30 years.
Covering an area of 140 million hectares, more than 90 percent of the world's rice is produced in Asia. This means that the continent is responsible for large-scale methane emissions from the production of this product.
Rice production accounts for about 10-13% of annual methane emissions, putting it in line with emissions from international aviation in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
It is time to look at carbon not as our enemy, but as our ally, as it can offer more options than sectors such as transport, industry and infrastructure to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture. We need to implement and support more agricultural biotechnology solutions that are not only sustainable but can greatly help in the fight against climate change.