importance of agricultural statistics for estimating ghg emissions from agriculture

Second FAO Workshop on Statistics for Greenhouse Gas Emissions,

3-4 June 2013, Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago)

Importance of agricultural statistics for estimating GHG emissions from Agriculture

Rocío Cóndor

MAGHG team

Outline

1. Overview of emissions from agriculture

2. Agricultural statistics as activity data

3. FAOSTAT database as a source of activity data

4. Data gaps

Emissions from Agriculture

DOMAIN CATEGORY GAS

Ag

ricu

ltu

re

Enteric Fermentation CH4

Manure Management CH4, N2O

Rice Cultivation CH4

Ag

ricu

ltura

l so

ils

Synthetic Fertilizers N2O

Manure applied to soils N2O

Manure left on pasture N2O

Crop residues N2O

Cultivated organic soils N2O

Burning - Savanna CH4, N2O

Burning – Crop

residues

CH4, N2O

Emissions = Activity Data * Emission Factors

Estimation of GHG emissions

Activity data: • data on the magnitude of a human activity resulting in emissions or removals of GHG during a given period of time (IPCC, 1996);

• typically derived from statistic;

• availability and quality as primary driving factors that determine the accuracy and reliability of the GHG emissions inventory.

Emission factor: • average emission rate of a given GHG, relative to units of the activity data (IPCC, 1996).

From IPCC, 2006

Main activity data used for the emissions estimate

Rice Cultivation Harvested area

Enteric Fermentation Manure

Number of animals

Synthetic Fertilizers N Fertilizer consumption

Crop Residues Yields & Harvested area

Recommendations IPCC 2006 Guidelines on activity data

• Importance of official national data

• FAO can support Member Countries with:

– global datasets (FAOSTAT and FRA);

– guidance on performing surveys and census; and

– cross-check national and international datasets to ensure completeness and consistency in GHG inventories.

FAOSTAT as a source of activity data

• FAO has a long maintained global datasets on agricultural and forest data, extremely valuable for National Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventories for the AFOLU sector (IPCC, 2006).

• FAOSTAT provides a global coverage of statistical data in different domains:

• Production: Livestock, Crops • Resources: Fertilizers, Land

• Data are collected through questionnaires compiled by Member Countries.

FAO Constitution

ARTICLE I

1. The Organization shall collect, analyze, interpret, and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture.

ARTICLE XI

5. Each Member nation shall, on request, communicate to the Organization, on publication, all laws and regulations and official reports and statistics concerning nutrition, food and agriculture

FAOSTAT questionnaire

Who is answering the questionnaires? Country Land Use/Fertilizer/Production

Argentina Instituto nacional de estadística y censos – INDEC

Bolivia (Plurinational State of) Instituto Nacional De Estadística - INE

Brazil Ministry of Agriculture Development - MDA/ Associação Nacional para Difusão de Adubos - ANDA /

Brasilian Institute of Statistics and Geography - IBGE

Chile Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas / Ministerio de Agricultura - ODEPA

Colombia Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural

Costa Rica Secretaría Ejecutiva de Planificación sectorial Agropecuaria - SEPSA

Cuba Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas

Dominican Republic Oficina Nacional de Estadística

Ecuador Insituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos - INEC / DIEC / ESAG

El Salvador Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG)

Guatemala Instituto Nacional de Estadística - INE

Honduras Instituto Nacional de Estadística - INE

Mexico Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática

Nicaragua Instituto Nacional de Información de Desarrollo (INIDE) / Ministerio Agropecuario y Forestal

Panama Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo

Paraguay Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganaderia

Peru Oficina de Estudios Económicos y Estadísticos (OEEE) / Ministerio de Agricultura (MINAG)

Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical Office

Uruguay Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas / DIEA / MGAP

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Istituto Nacional de Estadistica

Response rate to FAO questionnaires by Latin America Region

What is not covered in FAOSTAT?

– Burned areas (savanna, grassland, peat and forest)

– Organic soils

How did we solve it?

… We will see tomorrow!!

FAOSTAT

• Let’s see FAOSTAT together

http://faostat.fao.org/

Thank you!

Contacto: MAGHG@fao.org Sitio web MAGHG: www.fao.org/climatechange/micca/ghg Sitio web FAOSTAT: http://faostat.fao.org

Financiado por: