6 Mitigation of GHG Emissions
The major sources of GHG emissions in the livestock production system include the
enteric fermentation of animals, manure disposal and production of feed and forage.
The feed ingredients influence enteric fermentation and methane emission from the
rumen. There are a number of nutritional technologies for improvement in rumen
efficiency like, diet manipulation, direct inhibitors, feed additives, propionate
enhancers, methane oxidisers, probiotics, defaunation and hormones (Moss 1994).
The methane mitigation from molasses urea supplementation was 8.7 % (Srivastava
and Garg 2002) and 21 % from use of feed additive monensin (De and Singh 2001).
Methane emission from animals may be less on feeding leguminous forages than
feeding of grasses (Malik et al. 2013). Malik and Singhal (2008) documented a
significant reduction in methane production on the inclusion of limited quantity of
lucerne fodder (30 %) to the wheat straw-based ration. Plant secondary metabolites
such as tannin, saponin, essential oil, etc. showed promising results under in vitro
conditions and need to be evaluated further for their action in animal systems by
looking at the nutrient availability and productivity of animals (Malik et al. 2013).
The most noteworthy achievement to reduce CH 4 production in livestock farms is
the development of a vaccine containing an antigen derived from methanogenic
bacteria and an immunogenic preparation which reduces the activity of rumen
protozoa (Varma 2013). Improving animal waste management like covered storage
facilities, biogas production, electricity generation, etc. would reduce GHGs like
CH 4 , N 2 O significantly.
7 National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture
(NICRA)
The Prime Minister’s National Action Plan on Climate Change has identified agriculture as one of the eight National Missions. Therefore, the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) has launched the NICRA project during 2010–2011
with the objectives to enhance the resilience of Indian agriculture covering crops,
livestock and fisheries to climatic variability and climate change through development
and application of improved production and risk management technologies, to
demonstrate site specific technology demonstration packages on farmers’ field for
adapting current climate risks and to enhance the capacity of scientists and other
stakeholders in climate resilient agriculture research and its application. The
ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal is the core institute dealing
with the strategic research on adaptation strategies in livestock (cattle and buffalo) to
thermal stress through nutritional and environmental manipulations. Under this project, major cattle and buffalo breeds are being subjected to detailed investigation with
respect to their unique climate adaptability traits which would help to prepare a broad
road map based on scientific evidence for making Indian dairying climate resilient.
526
M.A. Kataktalware et al.
The major sources of GHG emissions in the livestock production system include the
enteric fermentation of animals, manure disposal and production of feed and forage.
The feed ingredients influence enteric fermentation and methane emission from the
rumen. There are a number of nutritional technologies for improvement in rumen
efficiency like, diet manipulation, direct inhibitors, feed additives, propionate
enhancers, methane oxidisers, probiotics, defaunation and hormones (Moss 1994).
The methane mitigation from molasses urea supplementation was 8.7 % (Srivastava
and Garg 2002) and 21 % from use of feed additive monensin (De and Singh 2001).
Methane emission from animals may be less on feeding leguminous forages than
feeding of grasses (Malik et al. 2013). Malik and Singhal (2008) documented a
significant reduction in methane production on the inclusion of limited quantity of
lucerne fodder (30 %) to the wheat straw-based ration. Plant secondary metabolites
such as tannin, saponin, essential oil, etc. showed promising results under in vitro
conditions and need to be evaluated further for their action in animal systems by
looking at the nutrient availability and productivity of animals (Malik et al. 2013).
The most noteworthy achievement to reduce CH 4 production in livestock farms is
the development of a vaccine containing an antigen derived from methanogenic
bacteria and an immunogenic preparation which reduces the activity of rumen
protozoa (Varma 2013). Improving animal waste management like covered storage
facilities, biogas production, electricity generation, etc. would reduce GHGs like
CH 4 , N 2 O significantly.
7 National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture
(NICRA)
The Prime Minister’s National Action Plan on Climate Change has identified agriculture as one of the eight National Missions. Therefore, the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) has launched the NICRA project during 2010–2011
with the objectives to enhance the resilience of Indian agriculture covering crops,
livestock and fisheries to climatic variability and climate change through development
and application of improved production and risk management technologies, to
demonstrate site specific technology demonstration packages on farmers’ field for
adapting current climate risks and to enhance the capacity of scientists and other
stakeholders in climate resilient agriculture research and its application. The
ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal is the core institute dealing
with the strategic research on adaptation strategies in livestock (cattle and buffalo) to
thermal stress through nutritional and environmental manipulations. Under this project, major cattle and buffalo breeds are being subjected to detailed investigation with
respect to their unique climate adaptability traits which would help to prepare a broad
road map based on scientific evidence for making Indian dairying climate resilient.
526
M.A. Kataktalware et al.