Agri-food accounts for over a third of all carbon dioxide equivalent emissions globally, in South and SouthEast Asia, it can be up to 50% of emissions. However, it can represent an investment opportunity for Asia’s agri-food sector, given the need for technology implementation says a new report.
The third edition of the Asia Food Challenge report, said that emissions-reducing technologies and practices across rice and cattle farms alone in Asia can improve farm-level gross margin by up to 16%.
“Technologies and practices are available today to reduce emissions, improve farm-level profitability and provide attractive investment opportunities. Implementing these available technologies and practices ahead of 2030 can have big results, fast,” the report noted.
The authors have identified over 20 technologies and practices available that work across different areas within the agri-food value chain.
“If implemented as we forecast, these solutions have the potential to reduce carbon from agri-food in Asia by approximately 12% by 2030 – a reduction of around 840,000 Mt CO2e, equivalent to the entire global aviation industry’s emissions in 2022,” they explain.
According to the authors, reducing the emissions offers an attractive investment opportunity from the technology and infrastructure these practices require to succeed, such as micro-irrigation to support changing rice cultivation practices, technology to support the variable rate application of farming chemicals, and storage infrastructure with continuous cold chain.
Moreover, with the emergence of digital platforms to engage with smallholder farmers, which can enable farmers to access new markets and better inputs, and allowing big food organisations to work with the farmers growing the food to tackle their emissions.
What can be done?
The report outlines several tail-winds supporting action on emissions in agri-food in the near-future, such as: creating the global social and political awareness of the quickening pace of climate change and the impact this has on agri-food is increasing, and there is broad support for action on emissions from agri-food.
Moreover, large organisations across the value chain have made decarbonisation commitments, many of which have a target in 2030. Some of these organisations are making positive progress in measuring Scope 3 emission, providing the data and direction for action to be taken to reduce emissions.
Nonetheless, there are platforms to engage with smallholders and support them as they transition to lower emissionpractices.
