Agri-food accounts for over a third of global carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, second only to energy. Agri-food is an even more significant source of emissions in some regions of Asia; it is up to 50% of all emissions in South and South East Asia. In total, Asia is responsible for 42% of all global emissions from agri-food, in a region with only 35% of the world's arable land.
The good news - there are readily available technologies and practices to address this. We quantified the impact of more than 20 of the most suitable technologies, which have the potential to reduce CO2e emissions from agri-food in Asia by 12% (840 Mt CO2e) by 2030. This is the equivalent of all CO2e emissions from global aviation in 2022.
Significant investment is required to implement these technologies - up to US$125bn for on-farm technologies on rice and cattle farms, in addition to infrastructure investments. However, agri-food can still represent a better carbon return on investment than sectors such as energy and aviation due to the relatively low capital expenditure and high technology readiness level of solutions.
These technologies offer opportunities for investors to support decarbonisation of agri-food. Technologies such as micro-irrigation to support changing rice cultivation practices, the variable rate application of farming chemicals, storage infrastructure with continuous cold chain, and the emergence of digital platforms, which are enabling farmers to access new markets and better inputs, can help reduce emissions.
Importantly, these technologies can improve profitability across the supply chain - for example, these actions could improve the gross margin of a rice farm by up to 16 ppt, e.g. by using inputs (such as fertiliser) more efficiently, extracting value from side streams, or boosting yield.
Find the full report here: https://www.theasiafoodchallenge.com/ .
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