Natural England

30 June 2008

The first study of its kind to provide detailed measurement of greenhouse gas emissions from farms in England has revealed big differences from one agricultural sector to another.

Farmers are today urged to go online and use the CALM (Carbon Accounting for Land Managers) calculator to measure their farms’ greenhouse gas emissions. They can then compare their results against the range found in this Natural England study.

The comprehensive study of 200 farms comes at a time when the agricultural industry is increasingly aware it must take steps to reduce its carbon footprint, particularly emissions of nitrous oxide and methane.

Agriculture is responsible for the majority of the UK’s nitrous oxide emissions caused by microbial activity in soils as a result of the application of nitrogen fertilizers – both organic and inorganic – essential for healthy crop growth. Methane emissions come mainly from livestock and manures. Both gases have a proportionally higher global warming potency than carbon dioxide.

The study shows that a typical 100 hectare cereal farm will emit the equivalent emissions of 78 cars or 50 average households in an average year.

Dr Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said: “Contributing to reducing the causes of climate change should be a major overarching objective for all who work on the land.

“This project is a key step on the road to involving farmers in making an important long-term contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  As well as growing our food and stewarding our environment, they can play a key part in tackling climate change.

“The beauty of this calculation is it enables farmers to see for themselves which of their activities on farmland contribute most to global warming. The results have kicked off an important process and widened the debate around the various methods of measuring emissions from agriculture.”

Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, President of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said: “The CLA welcomes the results from this work. They are extremely useful and will help CALM calculator users to understand more about their own businesses.

“The project by Natural England is a good first step but there needs to be much more work done to develop the baseline further so that more sophisticated advice can be given to land managers who are doing carbon accounts.”

The survey results revealed that:

• Dairy farms have the highest emissions (excluding specialist horticulture businesses) with an average of around 10 tonnes of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) per hectare.
 
• Cereal farms in general had the lowest emissions with an average of around two to four tonnes of CO2e equivalent per hectare.
 
• Draining or cultivating organic (peat) soils greatly increased CO2 emissions, due to the large amounts of carbon stored in peat being released to the atmosphere.
• The impact of existing woodland and, particularly woodland planting, on overall emissions was also noticeable.  In one or two instances, woodland planting on a farm went a long way towards offsetting their total greenhouse gas emissions.
• A combination of increasing the uptake of renewable energy on farms together with woodland planting and management could potentially have a big impact  on reducing a farm’s net GHG emissions.
  
• In the longer term, there is also the potential to deliver practices that enhance carbon storage in soils on the majority of farms.

Reductions in farm emissions are achievable whilst maintaining and even increasing production, mainly from more efficient use of energy and improving the precision of inputs, such as fertilizer. More significant cuts are possible with scientific and technological advances, but will require research and development.

Natural England’s Carbon Baseline Survey Project evaluates a greenhouse gas benchmark of farms and farm types using the CALM (Carbon Accounting for Land Managers) calculator designed, developed and funded by the CLA (Country, Land and Business Association), Savills, EEDA and Increment Ltd. 

The survey and report was conducted and produced on behalf of Natural England by Laurence Gould Partnership Ltd in collaboration with the University of East Anglia and their Carbon Reduction Programme (CRed) .

The CALM (Carbon Accounting for Land Managers) calculator is free via the CLA website, www.cla.org.uk, and the findings are regarded as a first step towards a benchmarking approach to improving awareness and management of the greenhouse gas impact of UK farms.

The full report can be found at www.naturalengland.org.uk/research/climate-energy/docs/calmreportfinal.pdf [960 kB]