Researchers from 19 countries discuss climate change research opportunities

Identify opportunities for transnational research aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving the production efficiency of agricultural land systems. This was the keynote of the annual meeting of the “Croplands Research Group (CRG)” - Research Group on Cultivable Land with Grains - which brought together, virtually, this Wednesday (19), around 40 scientists from 19 countries on four continents.

The CRG, which is part of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA), works together to find ways to increase production sustainably while limiting carbon and nitrogen losses to the atmosphere. Furthermore, it works to transfer this knowledge and associated technologies to farmers, land managers and policymakers around the world.

One of the co-coordinators of the CRG group, the researcher from Embrapa Instrumentação (São Carlos – SP), Ladislau Martin Neto, said that the presentations and discussions focused on the activities carried out within the scope of the group in 2021. But in the scope of scientific aspects, priority was given to if what is being called co-benefits - they are positive benefits related to the reduction of greenhouse gases. This is a goal of the GRA Strategic Plan for the period from 2021 to 2025.

mitigation strategies

“Mitigation co-benefits can serve to accelerate the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices,” emphasized physicist Martin Neto, who co-coordinates the CGR with United States Agricultural Research Service (ARS/USDA) researcher Mark Liebig, and with the professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Maria Rosa Mosquera Lousada.

According to the Brazilian researcher, using the network structure of the Grain Farmland Research Group, participants analyzed some promising mitigation strategies and co-benefits associated with biophysical, economic and human dimensions.

Among them, strategies to not increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as climate neutrality, with a neutral carbon balance, of agricultural production systems in areas under conservation management. The researcher explained that, in this way, it is possible to generate situations of C sequestration in the soil, with an increase in the content of soil organic matter (SOM).

Brazilian contributions

At the Brazilian level, in line with the decisions of COP 26, which took place in Glasgow, Scotland, last year, Martin Neto highlighted at the meeting the positive actions of the Sector Plan for Adaptation and Low Carbon Emissions in Agriculture, called ABC+, for the period from 2020 – 2030.

With continuous and strong contribution from Embrapa, the plan, launched last year by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa)

In this new phase, there are eight eligible conservation practices. These include direct planting, integrated crop-livestock-forest systems, bio-inputs, recovery of degraded pastures, planted forests, intensive cattle finishing, irrigated systems and animal waste management.

The researcher considers participation in these forums to be very relevant, because in addition to presenting opportunities for scientific cooperation, it creates conditions to disseminate, with clarity and emphasis, internationally the positive agenda of Embrapa and Brazilian agriculture, including on the topic of climate change.

“In 2021, for example, under the leadership of Embrapa Arroz e Feijão researcher, Beata Madari, an international cooperation project on the topic was approved, with funding from the government of New Zealand, where there is a Ministry of Climate Change, and which hosts the GRA Secretariat”, recalled the co-coordinator.

Kansas State University (EU) professor Charles Rice, when introducing the topic of co-benefits, presented research results, including several carried out in Brazil. Among them, direct planting systems and integrated systems. Rice, at the invitation of Martin Neto, visited Embrapa's units in São Carlos – Instrumentation and Livestock Southeast – in 2018, as well as maintaining cooperation with some Brazilian universities.

Rice also highlighted the work of the researcher from Embrapa Swine and Poultry (Concórdia – SC), Rodrigo Nicoloso, with whom he published work in the Soil Science Society of America Journal, at the end of 2021, on the global survey of areas with the adoption of direct planting .

According to Martin Neto, the study demonstrated several relevant aspects of the conservation system, including the fact that in subtropical and tropical areas, such as Brazil, with possibilities for two or more annual crops, situations were identified with greater amounts of carbon sequestered in the soil than in areas with a temperate climate.

In addition to Ladislau Martin Neto, researchers from Embrapa Digital Agriculture (Campinas – SP) participated, Giampaolo Q. Pellegrino, who is president of the Climate Change Portfolio, Beata Madari, also a member of the portfolio committee, and Pedro Machado, from Embrapa Arroz and Feijão and former coordinator of Embrapa Labex Europa.