{"id":69,"date":"2016-08-09T16:06:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T16:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/beti-o-connor\/?p=69"},"modified":"2016-08-09T16:09:23","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T16:09:23","slug":"carbon-navigator-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/beti-o-connor\/2016\/08\/09\/carbon-navigator-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon Navigator"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Carbon Navigator<\/h2>\n

The carbon navigator was established to assist in the task of reducing carbon emissions in the dairy and beef sectors of agriculture in Ireland.\u00a0 The carbon navigator is a knowledge transfer (KT) tool, intended to be of help at farm level, in determining possible mitigation options and communicating well with the farmer (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).\u00a0 It is designed to inform farmers of practices in which they can adopt and ways in which to improve performance, in order to both reduce emissions, and also increase profitability.\u00a0 It is important to note that, the Carbon Navigator does not account for all GHG emissions associated with a farm (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).\u00a0 The Carbon Navigator is a learning tool for farmers, and therefore intended to keep the interest of farmers, and to inform them on how to reduce their emissions outputs.<\/p>\n

So why do we need a carbon navigator?\u00a0 Food Harvest 2020, the sectoral development plan for Irish agriculture, recommends growth in output over the coming years (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>)and\u00a0 (Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, 2010).\u00a0 Of this, there is to be a 50% increase in dairy output (the milk quotas were abolished in 2015), and a 20% increase in the value of beef (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).\u00a0 However, at the same time in which we are to be increasing our beef and dairy outputs, we are also meant to be reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, as outlined by Food Harvest 2020 (Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, 2010).\u00a0 Ireland has pledged to reduce its non-emissions-traded sectors GHG emissions by 20% by 2020.\u00a0 If we want to achieve both these objectives, then we need a way in which to achieve greenhouse gas reductions at farm level.\u00a0 This is why the Carbon Navigator is so important.\u00a0 It is a decision support tool that can help farmers improve productivity, while at the same time improve carbon efficiency, and thus, increase income as well (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are high, at about 29-30%, compared to the global average, which is around 13.5% (Pachauri and Reisinger, 2007).\u00a0 Researchers are constantly trying to understand where these emissions come from, as once they can locate the source, they can create new technologies and practices for mitigation potential.\u00a0 The carbon navigator is an online decision support system that can aid farmers in\u00a0\u00a0 evaluating their present greenhouse gas mitigation practices, and advise methods in order to improve (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Carbon Navigator has been designed to encourage the uptake of carbon-efficient farming ((Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).\u00a0 It is a tool that has been designed through the collaboration of Bord Bia (The Irish Food Board) and Teagasc (The Agriculture and Food Development Authority).\u00a0 Teagasc and Bord Bia have worked together in the past, using old models of GHG emissions from Beef (Foley, Crosson et al. 2011<\/a>) and dairy (O\u2019Brien, Shalloo et al. 2011<\/a>), to develop whole-farm system carbon audit programmes (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).<\/p>\n

(Crosson, Shalloo et al. 2011<\/a>) tells of how the methods in which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) use to collect its data on greenhouse gas emissions on farms is not without its limitations.\u00a0 Therefore, a whole-farm modelling approach is widely adopted (Murphy et al, 2013).\u00a0 Again, (Crosson, Shalloo et al. 2011<\/a>) states that although the findings by the IPCC will continue to be main source for reporting national emissions, this whole-farm modelling system is still widely accepted (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It is important to note, when discussing ways in which Ireland can reduce its GHG emissions from agriculture, simply cutting down on production is not a solution.\u00a0 This is due to the fact that the Earth\u2019s population is rising, and therefore, so is the demand for food.\u00a0 Hence, if Ireland was to reduce its production, then food production would increase elsewhere, meaning the global GHG emissions would remain unchanged over all (Schulte, Lanigan et al. 2011<\/a>).\u00a0 Also, if Europe was to reduce GHG emissions by restricting the amount of permanent grasslands converted to arable land, we would see a reduction of around 1.6% (Van Zeijts, Overmars et al. 2011<\/a>), yet also a loss in production of goods, which would then be supplemented with imported goods, concluding in no overall, worldwide reduction in GHG emissions (Westhoek, Van Zeijts et al. 2014<\/a>).<\/p>\n

(Schulte and Donnellan 2012<\/a>) focuses on three classifications of mitigation measure;<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Measures based on efficiency improvements<\/li>\n
  2. Measures based on land-use change<\/li>\n
  3. Measures based on technology involvement<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Research has been able to identify areas of possible mitigation options for Irish agriculture.\u00a0 Next, we need to focus on how we can implement these options (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).\u00a0 In order to control GHG emissions from livestock production enterprises, the farmer will need to either (a) be given financial incentive by the government in return for support and implementation of necessary changes; or (b) be shown how there is a chance for the farmer to increase profitability by implementing these changes (Lovett, Shalloo et al. 2006<\/a>) and (EU-Commission 2005<\/a>).\u00a0 This is a very important fact to note- if we want our new emissions reducing technologies to be implemented well, we need the support of the farmers, and therefore, they need support as well, in forms of grant schemes and other incentives.\u00a0 With these incentives, farmers will then want to know the scientific basis behind emissions reduction and how they can implement change on their farm.\u00a0 This is where the Carbon Navigator becomes necessary.<\/p>\n

    <\/a>How the Carbon Navigator works<\/h3>\n

    Bord Bia has established a comprehensive data collection process, acquired access to national databases like the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and the Animal Identification and Movement System (AIM), and created an IT infrastructure that can support these schemes (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).\u00a0 These scheme require auditors to visit each farm on a regular basis (no more than 18 month intervals), to gather information concerning these schemes.\u00a0 Here, they also now collect information for the Carbon Navigator.\u00a0 The information collected is then processed through the online databases acquired by Bord Bia, to determine the performance of each farmer.<\/p>\n

    The farmer can then access the Carbon Navigator system online, with help from their adviser.\u00a0 Here, they will see a detailed outline of their current performance and also where they can potentially improve their performance, and what the outcomes will be for these improvements.\u00a0 These figures are illustrated through graphical and numerical forms.\u00a0 Ultimately, the Carbon Navigator shows the farmer emission mitigation potential and also financial profitability potential.<\/p>\n

    \"beef<\/p>\n

    Figure 1: An example of a Carbon Navigator output screen.\u00a0 <\/strong>The information seen is what a farmer will use to implement change.\u00a0 The metrics used are kg CO2e\/kg beef live weight and kg CO2e\/kg milk solids (fats and proteins).\u00a0 The information here was gathered by attending a Carbon Navigator Training Day at Teagasc, in June 2016.<\/p>\n

    The choice of measures to be implemented in the Carbon Navigator is established through a string of criteria (Murphy, Crosson et al. 2013<\/a>).\u00a0 These include:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Measures lead to scientifically verifiable decreases in greenhouse gas emission intensities<\/li>\n
    2. Measures that reduce emissions nationally and are capable of being incorporated in to current IPCC-based national inventory accounting were given high value<\/li>\n
    3. Measures that are capable of being implemented by farmers without any difficulty<\/li>\n
    4. Measures that are capable of enhancing profitability for the farmers<\/li>\n
    5. Measures that are similar with current enterprise knowledge transfer priorities<\/li>\n
    6. Measures need to be quantifiable in regards to the level of practice adoption and the effect of the adoption on greenhouse gas emissions<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      At this stage, the Carbon Navigator has two designs, the Dairy (D) Carbon Navigator and the Beef (B) Carbon Navigator.\u00a0 The navigator highlights certain technologies to mitigate GHG emissions at farm level.\u00a0 These include:<\/p>\n