Dossier
Climate-Smart Agriculture
Agriculture emits greenhouse gasses and therefore contributes to climate change, but agriculture and food security are also threatened by climate change. The growth of the world population and increase of income levels has resulted in a increased demand for food. Yet, this demand is increasing faster than ever before because the number of middle and high income people in the world is growing rapidly. Climate-Smart Agriculture addresses on the one hand the reduction of the environmental and climate impact of agricultural activity and on the other hand the development of food production methods and crops that are well adapted to changing weather conditions.
Climate-Smart Agriculture was placed on the political agenda during the UN Climate Summit on 23 September 2014. In 2011, Wageningen University & Research already initiated a global research alliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture. The Dutch government has now taken this subject to the international political arena. In New York, 75 countries agreed that measures should be taken to drastically increase food production with substantial reduction of resource usage and greenhouse gas emissions.
The Netherlands and Climate-Smart Agriculture
The Netherlands can play a key role in designing Climate-Smart Agriculture plans. Wageningen University & Research develops state of the art knowledge for Climate-Smart Agriculture and collaboration with companies and governments results in cutting-edge innovations.
Since the Climate-Smart Agriculture - Science for Action statement was published in 2011, Wageningen University & Research has been working with various renowned organisations on a global research agenda for Climate-Smart Agriculture. The current state of affairs is summarised in the Position paper Climate-Smart Agriculture.
News on Climate-Smart Agriculture
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How hybrid plant varieties could address the challenges of food security and climate change
16 May 2022 - News - Hybrid agricultural and horticultural crops can play an important role in supporting global food security. They produce higher yields and are often more resistant than non-hybrid varieties to diseases and climate stress. But for many crops, no hybrid varieties are available. Why is that? -
Bovaer® reduced methane emissions in dairy cows in different rations
29 March 2022 - News - Methane inhibitor Bovaer® by DSM significantly reduces the emission of methane by dairy cattle in the Netherlands. The reduction varies between 27% and 40% per cow, depending on the animal’s ration and the amount of methane inhibitor administered. The EU member states approved DSM’s feed supplement for the European market in February of this year. Brazil and Chili had previously accepted the supplement. -
Climate-proof agriculture in the saline coastal delta of the Netherlands
07 February 2022 - News - Fresh water is scarce in the Dutch coastal area. Climate change and salinisation are putting freshwater availability under even more pressure. This is a problem for agriculture and horticulture in coastal areas, especially in dry summers. In the AGRICOAST project, a consortium of WUR, TU Delft, companies and social organisations aims to increase the availability of fresh water in the Dutch coastal area. The project has been awarded a grant of 1.5 million euros from NWO to appoint five PhD students. -
Fact check: just how harmful is methane?
02 September 2021 - News - Methane contributes to global warming; it is therefore a greenhouse gas. Of all the methane produced in the Netherlands, 70% comes from livestock farming. A substantial percentage. But how harmful is it? Because, unlike other greenhouse gases, methane breaks down relatively quickly in the atmosphere. Theun Vellinga, senior researcher at Wageningen Livestock Research, explains. -
Five questions about chicken meat in supermarkets
13 August 2021 - News - On Wednesday 11 August it was announced that by the end of 2023 at the latest all Dutch supermarkets will only sell fresh chicken with at least 1 “Beter Leven” star. Beter Leven is a Dutch quality mark on food packaging by which consumers can quickly see which standards are used to grow animals. WUR scientists received many questions about this. In this article we answer the five most frequently asked. -
Genetics of enteric methane emissions of Dutch dairy cows
09 July 2021 - News - Breeding for lower emitting cows is possible as shown in our research where we collected data on 16 different farms in the Netherlands. This project was part of the Climate approach of the Ministry of Agriculture. -
How do you measure emissions in an open barn?
05 July 2021 - News - Much effort is being made within the Dutch livestock sector to reduce ammonia and methane emissions. But, how do you measure these emissions? How do we know what the current concentrations are? And, even more to the point, how can you measure emissions in an open barn? Doesn’t everything just – litterally - evaporate into thin air? -
Seaweed as a methane inhibitor is not free of risks
12 March 2021 - News - Cows exhale the strong greenhouse gas methane. One of the possible ways to limit methane emissions from cows is by feeding them the seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis. This seaweed contains high concentrations of bromoform, a substance that counteracts the formation of methane in the cow's rumen. Research by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) shows that bromoform can then end up in the milk and urine of the cow. -
Millions awarded for research on innovative barn systems
02 March 2021 - News - Can pigs spend more time outdoors if they pee and poop in a special toilet? Are we able to develop a super-smart manure robot capable of reducing methane emissions from manure by tens of percentages? The ministry of LNV (Dutch acronym for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) has made millions of euros available for research on these types of innovative barn systems. Wageningen University & Research is involved in 19 of the 22 allocated subsidies with a joint value of 14.5 million euros. -
Dairy chain makes further progress toward sustainability
11 February 2021 - News - In 2019, the Dutch dairy sector made progress in making the supply chain more sustainable. This is according to the recently published ‘Sustainable Dairy Chain Sector Report’ (‘Sectorraportage Duurzame Zuivelketen’) by Wageningen University & Research. The report shows that dairy farmers and dairy companies performed better on almost all sustainability targets than in the previous year.
Projects on Climate-Smart Agriculture
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SENSE project: Synergies in integrated systems
01 January 2024 - Project - To what extent can integrated crop-livestock-forestry (agroforestry) systems be part of the solution to climate and biodiversity crises? The SENSE project develops scenarios for farm circularity and evaluates their (i) potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, (ii) resilience, using probabilistic risk analysis, and (iii) side effects on other societal goals. -
Microbiome in relation to CH4 and NH3 emissions
01 January 2024 - Project - Reduction of methane emissions can be achieved through an integrated feed and animal-oriented approach. Enteric methane production is largely influenced by feeding strategies and by control of the (rumen) microbiome. This project plan investigates the microbiome track and its influence through animal management. -
Low Carbon Dairy: working together on a 50% reduction of the footprint of milk
12 July 2023 - Project - Wageningen University & Research is working to achieve a 50% reduction in the carbon footprint of milk by 2030 through the four-year Low Carbon Dairy public-private partnership (PPP). We are doing this in partnership with Unilever’s dairy supply chains involving Ben & Jerry’s and CONO Cheesemakers, and Nestlé with Vreugdenhil Dairy Foods. Feed companies (Agrifirm, ForFarmers and De Heus) and Duynie (supplier of co-products), Lely (robots and data systems for dairy farms), and Rabobank are also participating. -
A global to local study of climate smart livestock in Kenya (PhD project - Annita Kirwa)
01 May 2023 - Project - The project approaches the governance challenge of addressing sustainable Development Goals (SDG) interactions from a global to local lens through a multi-level case study of the Kenyan dairy sector. The study focuses on the ways through which bilateral and multilateral donors as well as government ministries are coordinating to address trade-offs and build synergies within the climate smart livestock context. The study aims contribute insights on how coordination mechanisms can transform a fragmented SDG governance system towards a polycentric system for an effective SDG implementation. -
Roughage management in a circular dairy system: reducing nutrient losses
01 January 2023 - Project - The dairy sector in The Netherlands is under pressure to increase its sustainability. After the progress made inthe past 30 years regarding nutrient efficiency, further efforts are required to comply with new issues, raisedby societal concern: nitrogen emissions (ammonia), greenhouse gas emissions (methane) and closing regionalnutrient cycles (circularity). Dairy processors are working on this market shift by incorporating thesesustainability goals in their milk sourcing and quality strategy, both in their processing as well as in the primaryproduction phase. Dairy farmers therefore need to be supported to be able to make their operational andstrategic management more sustainable within their possibilities. -
Climate-smart cattle breeding
01 January 2023 - Project - Reducing the CO2 footprint of dairy products has become an essential aspect of sustainable dairy production. Since dairy cows’ methane emissions are a significant contributor to the CO2 footprint, and the Dutch agricultural sector faces the challenge of further reducing methane emissions with 2.1 Mega tonnes by 2030 and even more by 2050, farmers urgently need cost-effective and efficient ways to reduce methane emissions. Some solutions to reduce enteric methane emissions have been extensively researched. Additives or manure fermentation, for example. -
Egypt and Jordan - Climate-Smart Agriculture
01 January 2022 - Project - In this project, a perspective is being developed to stimulate Climate-Smart Agriculture in Egypt and Jordan in the coming years. Through a collaboration with partners working on projects in the two countries and local stakeholders, experience and knowledge from previous projects is included in the perspective that is being developed. -
Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilient and Circular Food Systems
01 January 2022 - Project - Nature-based solutions are claimed to positively contribute to food security under climate change conditions. However, the knowledge underpinning this claim is fragmented and insufficiently existent. This project aimed to improve our understanding about nature-based solutions in the context of food systems at risks due to climate change. -
Microbiome in relation to CH4 and NH3
01 January 2022 - Project - Potential reduction measures via the feed and animal track - The integrated approach to methane and ammonia in dairy farming, with the aim of implementing the targeted reductions in 2030, means that for the ration, the entire chain of measures and practices to arrive at a ration (ensilage, grassland management, grass extraction, quality, grazing, fertilisation, etc.) must be investigated. The effects of this in practice will be tested on pilot farms and demonstrated on demo farms so that action perspectives can be given to farmers. -
Cow Act: Regional activation of Danone's sustainability strategy
28 September 2020 - Project - Key challenge: how to come to regional activation plans for milksheds in France, Spain and Poland to further develop and implement the sustainability goals of Danone on milkshed and dairy farm level.