College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

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A study of greenhouse gas emissions through application of mineral and organic nitrogenous fertilizer sources
(2012-06-10) Acquah, Samuel Joe
Agricultural practices contribute largely to emissions of the greenhouse gases especially CO2, CH4 and N2O, which potentially affect climate change mainly through trapping of long wave radiation emitted from the earth. This study was aimed at determining the emissions of these three important greenhouse gases (GHGs) released from two different agricultural soil types, two organic and two inorganic fertilizers known to potentially contribute to GHG emissions and hence, climate change and global warming. Carbon dioxide was the highest greenhouse gas emitted and the estimated emission ranged from 3121 to 10597 kg CO2 ha-1. The second highest GHG was nitrous oxide and was in the range of 61.1 to 470 kg N2O ha-1. Methane, the third in terms of emission ranged from 64.4 to 280 kg CH4 ha-1. Emission factors which are relevant in the estimation of greenhouse gases when enough activity data have been generated were estimated for the species of gases as CO2: 28.0 g kg-1, CH4: 1.47 g kg-1 and N2O: 2.11 g kg-1. The study showed that CO2 emissions were high in all poultry manure treatments. The CH4 emissions were virtually low both in the poultry manure as well as cattle manure treatments. The emissions of N2O estimated for both the poultry manure and cattle manure treatments under the study were higher compared with that of CH4.