Increased value creation in food production through characterizing and mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases from agriculture in Norway

Summary The forecasted climate makes it critical that Norway increase both the extent and efficiency of food production, while minimizing emissions of the green house gases (GHG); N2O, CO2 and CH4. Strategies to reduce GHG emissions should consider the fa rm as a complete ecosystem. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has developed a model (Holos) that enables the GHG emissions from a single farm to be estimated from a systems perspective. Thus, Canadian scientists have already developed considerable expertise in GHG science. Undoubtedly, their expertise will have relevance to Norwegian conditions and will accelerate the development of whole farm systems-based methods to characterize and mitigate GHG emissions from Norwegian agriculture. The pre-proj ect will elucidate the potential for developing management practices and additives that can reduce the emission of GHG within Norwegian agriculture. These approaches will not only benefit the Norwegian food sector, but also the society in general. The pr imary objectives of the pre-project are: a) Acquire knowledge on measurement techniques, modeling, sources and mitigation strategies for GHG emissions from agriculture in Norway by establishing a collaborative relationship with AAFC b) Prepare a gra nt application to support the development of a science-based policy for agricultural emissions of GHG in Norway.