Estimation of the Carbon Footprint in Dairy Sheep Farm

By 2050, the earth’s population is expected to be more than 9 billion. The need for secure food and water supply will force agriculture to increase production. The major greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the livestock sector are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) throughout the production process. These gases are the key contributor to an increasing earth’s surface temperature. Global warming occurs as a result of gases emitted by humans into the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect. The livestock sector contributes between 25 and 40% of anthropogenic methane emissions. Human-derived animal production contributes to global warming by producing 9% of CO2 emissions, 35-40% of CH4, and 65% of N2O gas emissions. Carbon footprint is a measure of the damage that human activities cause to the environment in terms of the amount of GHGs produced as a unit of CO2. The most common method used in carbon footprint calculations is the Tier 1-2-3 approach developed by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC). In this study, the carbon footprint of a dairy sheep farm in Niğde province was calculated using Tier 1 method to determine global warming potential. The carbon footprint of this farm from both sources like N20 and CH4 was 85535.2 CO2eq year-1. The estimation of GHGs is very obligatory to evaluate global warming stress and avoidance from some fatal diseases.