•  From New Zealand to the United States and Kenya to Colombia, scientists are on a mission to fight global warming by making livestock less gassy.

• Livestock is responsible for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

• According to calculations by some experts, this puts the livestock sector on par with transport.

• The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says transport is responsible for 14% of emissions.

• Although less prevalent than carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, methane is more potent because it traps 28 times more heat, according to a 2016 study by the Global Carbon Project, which groups climate researchers.

• Ruminants such as cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats produce nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane, which is the most emitted gas and is released through belching.

• Scientists are working on ways to reduce those emissions, including by breeding animals that burp less, adjusting their diets so they produce less methane and planting trees in pastures.
• A company is working on a type of probiotic — helpful bacteria or yeasts in the digestive system —which has shown a 50% reduction of methane emissions in cattle during research.

• New Zealand’s AgResearch has bred sheep to produce 10% less methane. In a single sheep, a 10% drop maybe not so significant. But when there’s 19 million sheep in the country, it starts to make a huge impact. The low-methane sheep are the result of a decade of research, and they are also leaner and grow more wool.
• In Kenya, scientists are testing various local grasses to see if they improve the productivity of livestock, which would reduce the amount of emissions per kg of milk, meat or eggs. Cows are placed in respiration chambers where scientists measure the methane emissions from different feeds available in East Africa.

• In Argentina, scientists took a novel approach to studying global warming, strapping plastic tanks to the backs of cows to collect their burps. Improvements in productivity alone could reduce up to 30% of methane emissions from livestock globally.

• Latin American ranchers are experimenting with silvopastoralism — planting trees in pastures where they absorb greenhouse gases and offset emissions, while restoring degraded soil and improving biodiversity. They can be different types of trees — for timber, fruit trees, even trees that animals can eat.

• In India, a national programme to boost the milk production of cows and buffaloes by improving their diet is also helping the environment.
• The NDDB uses software to assess the ideal diet for an animal, based on its physical profile and environment. Changes usually include adjusting the feed quantity and adding locally-available mineral supplements.

• The tailored diet means each animal produces 12 to 15% less methane.

• Over the past five years, the programme has reached about 2.6 million of the nearly 300 million cows and buffaloes recorded in India’s 2014 livestock census.

The Hindu