Agriculture and Low Carbon Society: Some Preliminary Thoughts

Agriculture is one of the important GHG gas contributor globally in general and in non-Annex I countries in specific. There exist several mitigation options in agriculture targeting methane and nitrous oxide emissions. However, farmers often favor those technologies that provide maximum returns per investment (high benefit:cost ratio, BCR) rather than those with high mitigation potential. The preliminary analysis suggested that the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) can provide maximum mitigation potential followed by adoption of zero-tillage (ZT) in rice-wheat systems. Other technologies compared were use of leaf-color charts and composting of paddy straw. ZT has high cost-benefit ratio than the SRI. For farmers to adopt technologies with high mitigation potential that are costly or have less BCR, there is a need to put in place incentive mechanisms including carbon pricing which are currently not in place.

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