Mitigation strategies
Potential climate mitigation strategies modelled for the National Grains Life Cycle Assessment project include;
| Strategy | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Sustainable intensification | This mitigation strategy assessed the climate impacts of increasing N fertiliser inputs so wheat yields reached the water-limited yield potential (WLYP). The WLYP was taken from the Yield Gap Australia project (www.yieldgapaustralia.com.au), the model assumed additional N was applied as urea and assumed the partial factor productivity of applied N was 55 kg wheat per kg N applied |
| Increasing lime inputs | This strategy assumed that the frequency of lime applications doubled to that of average regional practice. It was only modelled for regions that were dominated by acid soils. |
| Implementing variable rate technology (VRT) for fertiliser | This strategy assumed that the implementation of VRT reduced fertiliser inputs for a wheat crop by 20% compared to the baseline system. |
| Adding legumes in rotation | Legumes are regularly incorporated into cropping rotations so this strategy tested the assumption that replacing a wheat crop with a legume crop any benefiting from the additional N fixed by the legume offset the impacts of using synthetic fertiliser in wheat system |
More specific information is available in the results from each agro-ecological zone (AEZ).
