Opportunities for Improving Productivity and Reducing Methane Emissions in Smallholder Dairy Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

PxD and IGSD are partnering on an initiative to collaboratively identify opportunities for innovation in climate change mitigation, particularly for the greenhouse gases most problematic in agricultural production, methane, and nitrous oxide, as well as carbon dioxide. This initiative includes four analytical pieces on the opportunities for climate change mitigation by smallholder farmers.

Methane is second only to carbon dioxide in its contribution to global warming, and accounts for about half of the temperature increase of human-induced global warming (0.51 °C out of the present 1.06 °C). Strong, rapid, and sustained methane reductions are key to slowing warming in the next two decades, thereby reducing the risks of triggering self-amplifying feedbacks (such as thawing of the permafrost in the Arctic) and of crossing irreversible tipping points (including loss of tropical reefs, the Amazon rainforest, the Greenland Ice Sheet, and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet). Growing recognition of the urgency to reduce methane emissions has propelled over 150 countries to endorse the Global Methane Pledge, which sets a collective target to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. Achieving this target would reduce warming by at least 0.2 °C by 2050 and keep the planet on a pathway consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The focus of this brief is on identifying methane mitigation approaches currently suitable for implementation in smallholder farmer and pastoralist contexts.