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In Latvia the production resource - land is not exploited efficiently, and there is a large potential for land to be used in efficient agricultural production. National task is set for the next years in Latvia to retain agricultural land for agricultural production, in order to efficiently manage approximately 2 million ha. The agricultural sector is an important source of nitric oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Increasing agricultural production is expected to increase the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Latvia. Emissions depend on the specialization and the farm grown products. Quantifying emissions from different specialization farms can identify the main sources of emissions and make decisions to reduce them. [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]