The contribution of agriculture in a local greenhouse gas turnover

Abstract

The general objective of this study is to analyze the contribution of agricultural sector in a local scale greenhouse gas turnover. It includes identification and quantification of the entire agricultural activities regarded as greenhouse gas sources as well as those concerned as greenhouse gas sink. The study was carried out in 2010 and based on a series of five years data compiled from a municipality in West Java Province as a case. The greenhouse gas sources were categorized into four sectors covering energy sector, solid waste, agricultural and animal husbandry sectors whereas the greenhouse gas sink was identified merely in agricultural sector. The amount of a single greenhouse gas emission was calculated by multiplication between a source unit and its corresponding emission factor. The total quantity of greenhouse gas emission generated by the municipality was summation of the whole sources from the entire sectors. The amount of the whole greenhouse gas sink was summation of the total sequestered carbon. The study result based on five years compiled data indicated that the average municipality greenhouse emission was in the order of 14.0 MT CO2-e per year whereas the net sink was approximately 0.05 MT CO2-e per year. The contribution of agricultural sector was merely 0.08 % of the total municipality greenhouse gas sources while its contribution on the greenhouse gas sequestration (as sink) was 2.39% of the emitted greenhouse gases. It can be concluded that based on the quantitative analysis, the local agricultural sector is a manner to sequester atmospheric carbon.