The Agency is Assisting Member States to Reduce the Amount of Methane Produced by Ruminant Livestock

Methane is produced from a variety of sources - both human-related (anthropogenic) and natural. Human-related activities which accounts for more than 60% of global methane emissions include fossil fuel production, animal husbandry (enteric fermentation in livestock and manure management), rice cultivation, biomass burning, and waste management. Natural sources include wetlands, gas hydrates, permafrost, termites, oceans, freshwater bodies, non-wetland soils, and other sources such as wildfires.

The Kyoto agreement and its subsequent outcomes placed significant pressure on the ruminant livestock industry to reduce the amount of methane produced. Despite world-wide research efforts there are no profitable solutions in place that can be adopted by farmers for suppressing methane production for a given diet; nevertheless, it became quite clear that increasing the quality of the diet decreases the amount of methane produced per unit of product thus increasing the efficiency of production. In other words, animals fed better quality diets produce less methane than those fed more fibrous diets. Therefore, more efficient feeding systems using better quality feeds will not only result in higher profitability for the farmer but less atmospheric pollution.

Reducing enteric methanogenesis is beneficial from the standpoint of increasing energy efficiency of the animal and from an environmental perspective. Methane production in ruminants is negatively correlated with energy utilization and it can range from 2 to 12% of the gross energy intake. Reduction of methane production can be achieved by use of feed additives e.g. ionophores, probiotics, acetiogens, bacteriocins, essential oils, grains, and high-quality forages. However, it is also important to ensure that the additives do not adversely affect animal productivity.

The IAEA through the Animal Production and Health Section has strongly supported research and developmental work in developing countries in the last 30 years for improving quality and availability of local feeds and in the formulation of improved quality rations.

As an example, a recent Coordinated Research Project on “Development and use of rumen molecular techniques for predicting and enhancing productivity” screened more than 200 plants and plant extracts comprising of browse, multi-purpose trees, medicinal plants, and spices from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The results indicated that Acacia angustissima, Allium sativum, Canabis indica, Emblica Jambolana, E. officinalis, Eucalyptus globulus, Foeniculum vulgare, Mangifera indica, Mentha pipperita, Populus deltoides, Psidium guajava, Quercus incana, Sesbania sesban, Syzygium aromaticum, Terminalia belerica, Terminalia chebula, and Trachyspermum ammi inhibited methane production by 25 to 100% and a large number of plants were also inhibitory for rumen ciliate protozoa. Methane production was reduced in vitro by between 10 and 100% and in vivo by 11 to 35%.

Actions taken by the IAEA through these projects have resulted in improved productivity of livestock, and are also contributing to reducing the impact of ruminants on the environment.