Emissions in agricultural-based developing economies: A case of Nigeria

Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (methane and nitrous oxide) contribute substantially to global warming. This article explores and develops roadmaps towards mitigating these emissions in developing economies. Nonetheless, mitigating the impacts of global warming on humanity entails curtailing the greenhouse emissions which is very challenging given that this Greenhouse Gas (GHG) is emitted during agricultural food production processes. The Kaya and Index Decomposition Analysis (Kaya-IDA) models are used to decompose and study the drivers of the agricultural Greenhouse Gas emission (methane and nitrous oxide) in Nigeria from 1990 to 2019. Moreover, different policies are developed using scenario-based analysis from 2020 to 2050 to show possible Greenhouse Gas emission mitigation pathways. The results show that the agricultural greenhouse emission intensity and per capita output are the leading drivers of the total agricultural level of emission in Nigeria. There is also a decline in agricultural value-added contribution in the past decade to the overall emission level. Among the four policy scenarios, the Special Package Policy, which achieves a more than a proportional reduction in agricultural greenhouse emission intensity relative to other driving factors, results in a favourable and substantially reduced level of overall emission in the agricultural sector of Nigeria. The implications of this study also apply to other African economies with similar agricultural sectors like that of Nigeria.

Automated summary

This article explores the drivers of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in Nigeria and potential pathways for emission reduction. The study reveals that agricultural greenhouse gas emission intensity and per capita output are the leading factors affecting the total emission level in Nigeria's agricultural sector.