Rural Support Service of the Ministry of Agriculture of Latvia agreement No. 24-00-S0INZ03-000026
The Study is financed in accordance with Cabinet of Ministers regulations No. 59 "Procedure for awarding state and European Union support for investment promotion in agriculture".
Project partners are LSFRI "Silava" (leading partner), Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics (AREI) and Latvian University of Biosciences and Technologies (LBTU).
The aim of the Study is to improve the accounting system of GHG emissions and CO2 sequestration due to the management of arable land and perennial grasslands in 2026–2030 in the context of GHG emissions reduction commitments, as well as to improve methods for calculating GHG emissions and CO2 sequestration for arable land and grasslands, moving towards higher-level calculation methods for reporting all carbon pools and more accurate characterization of activity data.
As part of the research, we will specify the equations that describe the effect of sowing plants on GHG emissions from the soil and carbon turnover, taking into account changes in carbon yield indicators; we will characterize GHG emissions from alluvial soils used as arable land and grasslands, including preparing a scientific publication on the gas exchange measurement data; we will obtain empirical data on the impact of soil treatment methods on GHG emissions from the soil; and we will prepare an assessment of the current events in the European Commission's proposals for the introduction of carbon-related agriculture and forestry.
We will use the solutions developed in the study to improve the national GHG inventory in the LULUCF sector, assessing changes in soil carbon stock and GHG emissions in agricultural lands.
The tasks of Study:
- Characterize the impact of the use of the seedling plant on GHG emissions (in cooperation with LBTU):
- continue the assessment of CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions in agricultural land using red clover as a seed crop (three crops with and without the use of a seed crop);
- continue to characterize the influence of the use of the seedling plant and the selected crops on GHG emissions in the research area managed by AREI Stende Research Center, including assessing soil properties, soil moisture, air temperature, precipitation, fertilizer spreading and farming methods impact on GHG emissions;
- prepare a report and a scientific publication on the results of the research; - Evaluate the proposals of the European Commission (EC) for the implementation of the carbon-related agriculture initiative (LSFRI "Silava"):
- evaluate the European Union (EU) regulatory proposals related to the GHG inventory and forecast reports of the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, their performance data and the necessary improvements, reporting the impact of climate change mitigation measures;
- assess the compliance of climate change mitigation activities of the Latvian LULUCF sector with the criteria set by the EU for carbon-related agriculture measures, and prepare proposals for ensuring compliance of the measures; - Describe the effect of soil heterotrophic respiration on CO2 circulation, GHG emissions from soil and carbon input with plant residues in alluvial (floodplain) soils in perennial grasslands and arable lands (in cooperation with AREI Stende Research Center):
- continue to obtain empirical data (on GHG emissions and soil heterotrophic respiration) in three seeded areas;
- prepare a scientific publication on the results of the research in perennial grasses, including CO2 emission factors for alluvial soils;
- to prepare report on research results; - Continue to obtain empirical data on the impact of approved cultivation technologies on CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions from the soil, using three different soil treatment methods in the succession of plants and providing a data set for at least two seasons (in cooperation with the AREI Stende Research Center).