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Understanding variability in carbon footprint of smallholder dairy farms in the central highlands of Ethiopia

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Title Understanding variability in carbon footprint of smallholder dairy farms in the central highlands of Ethiopia
 
Creator Feyissa, Abraham Abera
Senbeta, Feyera
Diriba, Dawit
Tolera, Adugna
 
Subject smallholders
dairy farms
greenhouse gas emissions
climate resilience
carbon footprint
milk production
data
enteric methane
manure management
global warming
farm typology
rural areas
rural economics
digestibility
value chains
feed crops
dairy cattle
life cycle analysis
 
Description Smallholder dairy farms face enormous challenges in increasing milk production while mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, thereby enhancing climate resilience. The carbon footprint (CF) of smallholder milk production is expected to increase with increasing demand for dairy products under the business-as-usual scenario. This study estimates the carbon footprint of smallholder milk production and examines variation across farms using data from 480 households to identify viable options for mitigating GHG emissions. We applied a cradle to farm-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to examine the effects of farming systems on GHG emission intensities across intensification gradients of smallholder farms (SHF) from four potential dairy districts in the central highlands of Ethiopia. According to our findings, enteric fermentation was the primary source of GHG emissions, and methane (CH4) emissions from enteric fermentation and manure management accounted for the majority of total emissions across farms. The estimated average CF varies depending on farming systems, global warming potential (GWP), and allocation methods used. When GHG emissions were allocated to multiple products using economic allocation and based on IPCC (2007) and IPCC (2014) GWPs, the overall average CF of milk production was 1.91 and 2.35 kg CO2e/kg fat and protein-corrected milk (FPCM), respectively. On average, milk accounted for 72% of total greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of farm typology, rural SHF systems produced significantly more CF per kg of milk than urban and peri-urban SHF systems. Variations in milk yield explained more than half of the variation in GHG emissions intensity at the farm level. Feed digestibility and feed efficiency had a negative and significant (P < 0.01) association with CF of SHF. Our findings suggested that improving feed digestibility and feed efficiency by increasing the proportion of concentrate and improved forage as well as chemically upgrading straw and crop residue could provide an opportunity to both increase milk yield and reduce the CF of milk production of SHF in the study area. Supporting SHF to realize strategies contributing to climate-resilient dairy development require interventions at several levels in the dairy value chain.
 
Date 2022-12
2022-12-22T11:29:46Z
2022-12-22T11:29:46Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Feyissa, Abraham Abera; Senbeta, Feyera; Diriba, Dawit; and Tolera, Adugna. 2022. Understanding variability in carbon footprint of smallholder dairy farms in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Tropical Animal Health and Production 54(6): 411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-022-03379-1
0049-4747
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126241
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-022-03379-1
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyrighted; all rights reserved
Limited Access
 
Format article 411
 
Publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
 
Source Tropical Animal Health and Production