Search

The Latvian agriculture has achieved remarkable progress with regard to crop production over the past decade, which has resulted in constantly growing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. Currently, the agricultural sector is the second largest source of GHG emissions, accounting for 21.5% of the total GHG emissions in the country, and the key source of GHG emissions is direct nitrous oxide emissions from soil, which are largely the result of nitrogen applied. Such trends indicate that without additional measures Latvia cannot reach its GHG emission targets set internationally. In this paper, authors aim to select measures that have potential to reduce the GHG emissions from the Latvia's crop production sector by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. Within the hierarchical structure of decision-making process, four factor groups affecting implementation of measures were evaluated: economic, social, environmental and technological factors. The study results indicated that the potential to reduce emissions from crop production sector is limited by technology as technological factors play the most important role in the process of implementation of GHG emission-reducing measures. Study results showed that reduction of direct N2O emissions can be achieved through several alternatives from which, according to experts' rating, the most important is such GHG emission reducing measures that promote accurate management of nitrogen circulation and introduction of an organic management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land resources are not fully exploited for agricultural production in Latvia. According to the Rural Support Service, in 2013 approximately 400 thousands ha of agricultural land were not declared for Single Area Payment Scheme. Increases in bioresources and food production in the world have become objective needs. Exploiting these land resources provides a possibility to increase agricultural output and economic efficiency in Latvia's rural areas. Yet, agricultural growth in Latvia's rural areas may not be in contradiction with sustainable development principles. It is necessary to intensify agricultural production by increasing agricultural output and contributing to comprehensively achieving sustainability indicators. To ensure sustainable intensification of Latvia's land resources, a theoretical model for calculating sustainable intensification indicators for agricultural holdings in Latvia, which involves social, economic, environmental and innovative sustainability, is being developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To comply with the requirements of the EU Directive 2009/28/EC for using renewable energy sources (RES) in Latvia, the agricultural industry has to become a significant supplier of resources to energy producers and consumers. An increase in the area sown with maize is forecasted by exploiting the unused agricultural land to expand biogas production. The agricultural area has decreased by 2% in Latvia over the recent decade, and 16% of its total agricultural area are not exploited anymore. Thus, agricultural land resources are available to produce intensively RES for biogas production in the future and to achieve the target set for renewables by 2020, so that the total capacity of biogas facilities reaches 61 MW. In 2011, totally 24 new biogas facilities with a total capacity of 29.38 MW started operating. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia has granted 59 licences to purchase electricity produced from biogas in compliance with the renewable power purchase obligation. It means that raw materials are needed for newly established biogas facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GHG emission reduction in the non-ETS (emission trading system) sector is a relevant component of environmental policies for the next programming period. Specific policy matters of the next programming period are unclear, yet in general, it is clear that the reduction of emissions or at least the introduction of emission abatement measures are binding on agriculture. A popular way how to analyse GHG emission abatement measures is to use a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) that ranges the measures according to their costs and emission reduction potential. Such a research study has been done and the measures have been analysed in Latvia. A MACC, however, gives a relative notion of the effects of GHG emission abatement measures on sustainable development in Latvia. The research aim is to analyse the effects of GHG emission abatement measures on sustainable development in Latvia. The key instrument of the present research is Integrated Impact Assessment; according to it, experts from various fields identify the effects of GHG emission abatement measures on the economy, the environment and social development, determining its vector (positive/negative) as well as effect intensity (on a scale from 1 to 3). The results showed that some measures, e.g. promotion of biogas production, could have a negative effect in some sustainability sub-dimensions, yet overall the GHG emission abatement measures make positive and significant effects not only on the environment but also on sustainability at large. At the same time, it has to be taken into consideration that the effects identified by the experts are indicative and more research has to be done to make a more accurate assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]