Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Agriculture: Pathways to Sustainable Reductions

Agriculture serves as both a source and a sink of global greenhouse gases (GHGs), with agricultural intensification continuing to contribute to GHG emissions. Climate-smart agriculture, encompassing both nature- and technology-based actions, offers promising solutions to mitigate GHG emissions. We synthesized global data, between 1990 and 2021, from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to analyze the impacts of agricultural activities on global GHG emissions from agricultural land, using structural equation modeling. We then obtained predictive estimates of agricultural GHG emissions for the future period of 2022-2050 using deep-learning models. The FAO data show that, from 1990 to 2021, global livestock numbers, inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer use, crop residue, and irrigation area increased by 27%, 47%, 49%, and 37%, respectively. The increased livestock numbers contributed to the increases in CH