Greenhouse gas emissions
On-farm emissions sources of all three crops are shown below in Figure 2. For wheat and canola, the greatest contributions to the total Global Warming impacts were the production and use of fertiliser. Residue emissions also made a considerable contribution to Global Warming impacts. The relatively low rates of fertiliser use for lupin production meant that residue emissions were the dominant source of Global Warming impacts for this crop and that impacts associated with the production of fertiliser, tractor operations and chemical production were relatively high.
Figure 2: Greenhouse gas emissions profile for the production of wheat, canola and lupins in the NSW Vic Slopes agroecological zone.Greenhouse gas mitigation strategies
Mitigation strategies tested for the region were;
- Sustainable intensification
- Additional applications of lime
- Implementation of variable rate fertiliser technology
- Changing a wheat-wheat rotation to a legume-wheat rotation
More information on the assumptions used to test these strategies and how they might reflect individual enterprises are available on the Mitigation strategies page.
Results (Figure 3 below) indicate that emissions of a t of wheat can be reduced by;
- 69% through the implementation of sustainable intensification
- 19% by additional lime applications
- 15% by implementation of variable rate fertiliser technology
Results also indicate the replacing a wheat crop with a legume crop in a two-crop rotation can increase greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 165%.
Figure 3: Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for wheat production when grown with sustainable intensification, variable fertiliser, additional lime applications and legume - wheat mitigation strategies in the NSW Vic slopes agroecological zone
Accessible Content
Accessible versions of the raw data used to generate these charts is below.Greenhouse Gas Emissions Profile
Wheat | Barley | Field peas | |
---|---|---|---|
Lime production | 2.3029659 | 2.1928241 | 2.9322648 |
Lime use | 3.905757 | 3.7189599 | 4.9730278 |
Fertiliser production | 71.88952 | 34.352523 | 30.624342 |
Fertiliser use | 80.30291346 | 12.52144339 | 11.23580469 |
Residue emissions | 54.99920184 | 52.10710886 | 78.67765008 |
Transport | 2.886535 | 2.2819101 | 2.8030228 |
Tractor operations | 31.6773661 | 27.93563615 | 37.36381951 |
Chemical production | 34.66787934 | 32.29268402 | 43.55647447 |
Mitigation Strategies
Strategy | Result |
---|---|
Sustainable intensification | -17 |
Variable rate fertiliser | -34 |
Additional lime applications | -26 |
Legume-wheat | 125 |