By Jayme DeLoss
Irrigating U.S. crops prevents higher greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding land conversion, groundbreaking new research by Colorado State University shows.
Agricultural irrigation allows the United States to grow more food on less land. If irrigation were suddenly shut off, the land change required to make up for lost yield would produce significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than those emitted by irrigating – 363 times more.
CSU scientists estimate the emissions saved by avoiding land-use change would equate to 363 years’ worth of today’s U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions from irrigation.
Converting natural ecosystems to agricultural use releases carbon that’s stored in soil and vegetation. Land use and land conversion for agriculture to produce food, fiber and fuel contribute nearly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, making the sector a key priority for emissions reductions, the study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences states.
“It was clear from this work that irrigation has a net positive effect on emissions,” said lead author Avery Driscoll, who conducted the research as a CSU Ph.D. student. “The avoided emissions from reductions in indirect land-use change were much greater than the direct emissions, and that could decline further with electrification.”
Source : colostate.edu