After having spent one year in the field and following approximately 1000 cattle from smallholder farmers, Alice Onyango, John Patrick Goopy  and colleagues present improved emission factors for enteric methane emissions from smallholder cattle in Nyando Kenya.

The study, recently published in Agricultural Systems not only provides TIER 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission estimates, but also promotes a new approach to derive such numbers for a common African livestock system locally. The study accounts for seasonal variability in feed availability and subsequent consequences for animal production. Furthermore, the stresses that currently available approaches to estimate methane emissions from smallholder cattle using TIER 1 calculations as provided by the IPCC guidelines clearly overestimate the GHG emissions from smallholder cattle found in Africa.

Similarly, John Goopy et al. highlight the necessity for further studies, as this only represents the first of its kind in a very specific region in Kenya with a focuson smallholder cattle only. For more information read the full study here.