Low Carbon Agriculture an Effective Way to Combat Climate Change

Source: MOA website

On June 18, our journalist was informed at the seminar of low carbon agriculture held in Beijing by the Ministry of Agriculture that agriculture was the emission source of green house gases, as well as the industry prone to the impact of climate change. The extreme disasters caused by global climate change have increased the instability of agriculture. China s crop output might drop by 5%-10% by 2030 if without proper response; the distribution and structure of agricultural production might change, with an expanding scope of crop diseases and pests, more serious water shortage, and more acute desertification of grassland. The production of livestock and poultry and their reproduction might be affected, with a bigger risk of incurrence of animal and poultry epidemics.

According to experts, low carbon agriculture is aimed at reducing green house gas (GHG) emission. They suggests that during the 12th Five-Year Plan, China should start by increasing agricultural ability to deal with climate change, decreasing agricultural GHG emissions, increasing carbon sink of agricultural GHGs, and increasing agricultural efficiency and production of agricultural products, so as to establish a comprehensive set of technological system of ecological compensation of low carbon agriculture and provide references to China s identification of agricultural policies and actions.

(Date: 00:14 21 June 2010)