P.E.I. farmers working on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Fuel for farming activities may be exempt from the carbon tax, but climate change impacts farmers the same as the rest of us.

Farmers on Prince Edward Island are doing what they can to manage the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, while still feeding the country.

The cows don’t know it, but they’re one of the larger sources of greenhouse gases.

The methane they produce in their guts is 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture has released a roadmap to 2040, a plan to significantly reduce emissions on farms.

“Our farmer have been impacted by climate change, and so they understand that this is a real challenge, and are prepared to play their role in mitigating it,” said Donald Killorn, PEIFA executive director.

Some of that is also directed at green energy technology like solar, but the PEIFA says only about 10 per cent of emission on P.E.I. farms come from the generation of energy

The PEIFA’s big target is emissions from livestock and crop production.

Killorn said new farming methods can reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions from vegetable farming on P.E.I. by 40,000 tonnes each year.

“Through manure management, and housing, and diet supplements, we can actually reduce our emission from livestock by 100,000 tonnes,” said Killorn. “In total we have the potential, by now and 2040, to reduce our emissions by almost 40 per cent.”

One of the biggest players in farming greenhouse gas emissions are nitrogen fertilizers, a cornerstone of modern farming methods.

Nitrogen fertilizers can release nitrogen oxide, which is 300 times more impactful than carbon, but there’s a real incentive to stop that.

Using targeted fertiliser management, farmers can make sure they’re using the right amount of nitrogen, at the right place, at the right time, and spend less doing it.

“The growers are getting the value out of the fertilizer they buy. They’re not buying more fertiliser than they need, and we have less loss to the environment,” said Ryan Barrett, P.E.I. Potato Board research specialist. “It’s really a win-win all around.”

Farmers are also looking at ways to reduce erosion and better maintain fields.

Around 50 per cent of island potato fields now use some kind of cover crop, and a second planting over the fall and winter which is often some kind of cereal crop to help fields weather the winter.

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