Page 154 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1

The significance of pastures

• Enteric fermentation: The use of silage efficiently and applying
nutritional additives, intensive fattening feed practices, adding certain
oils and oily seeds to animal diet, improving grazing conditions,
arranging protein intake, special additives, probiotics.
• Fertilizer Management: Restricting methane emissions, production of
biogas, composting.
• Land Management: Land analysis, controlling mineral fertilizer
applications, increasing the carbon capture capacity of the land through
compost practices, the use of carbon-rich waste on the soil, increasing
soil-free agricultural practices.
As part of IPCC (2019) emission mitigation strategies, the strategies
recommended for agriculture and livestock breeding under the 15th title, “Life
on Land” of UN Sustainable Development Goals are as follows: promotion
of biological sources through intensive farming, decreasing deforestation,
providing variety through the improvement and restoration of communities
that display biological diversity in farms and/or pastures, and promotion of
plant-based consumption instead of animal protein (IPCC, 2019). Additionally,
remedial agricultural application such as holistic grazing management seem
to have an important effect on perennial forage plant farming, and the
sustainability of agriculture (Geren et al, 2021; Hazar, 2018). In this respect, UN
Development Program (UNDP) has community-based (commons) projects as
well as projects towards the improvement of pastures resistance to climate
change for various bioregions (UNDP, 2010).
Literature provides various suggestions and policies towards not only
the mitigation of negative effects of climate change on agriculture, but also
the negative effects of agricultural sector on climate change. The current
study agrees with all the suggestions, but states that to implement these
suggestions, policies and criteria, there is need for focusing on the prevention
of ongoing conflicts especially over pastures, updating the relevant rules and
regulations, informing rural producers, and supervising practices.

The Importance of Pastures for Food Security

Food production is a basic human activity that supports the livelihood of all
the people around the planet. Of the 14 billion ha of ice-free land on Earth,
10% is used for agricultural production while 25% is utilized as pastures. Either
directly or indirectly, over 2 billion tons of grain are produced annually for
food or silage, which makes up roughly one third of overall protein intake.
Of this, only 10% (around 200 million ton) is subject to international trade.
Additionally, food production is largely responsible for the anthropogenic

Year 1 / Issue 1 / Jan 2022 139