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Published on January 26, 2008

"We call on the new Thai government to implement a fertiliser-reduction programme and subsidies to encourage farmers to move away from chemical-intensive farming to ecologically sound methods. Thai farmers should reduce fertilisers to the minimum amount required and avoid overuse," said Natwipha Ewasakul, a campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

The environment-oriented organisation said in a new report published yesterday that the agricultural sector, spurred by industrial farming and fertiliser overuse, was responsible for between 17 and 32 per cent of all greenhouse-gas emissions which cause climate change.

The report, entitled "Cool Farming: Climate Impacts on Agriculture and Mitigation Potential", describes how energy- and chemical-intensive farming have led to increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily as a result of the overuse of fertilisers, land clearance, soil degradation and intensive animal farming. The total global contribution of agriculture of climate change, including deforestation for farmland and other land use changes, is estimated to be equivalent to 8.5-16.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or between 17 and 32 per cent of all human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions.

"The environmental impacts of industrial farming have reached critical levels. Governments of agriculture-driven economics must support future farming methods that work with nature, not against it," said Natwipha.

Fertiliser overuse is responsible for the highest single share of agriculture's direct greenhouse-gas emissions, currently equal to some 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2 annually, the organisation said. Excess fertiliser results in the emission of nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide in changing the climate.

Furthermore, the organisation said, fertiliser also pollutes groundwater sources in Southeast Asia. Earlier, a Greenpeace study entitled "Nitrates in Drinking Water in the Philippines and Thailand" revealed how the excessive use of nitrogen-based fertilisers associated with intensive crop production had led to the pollution of groundwater in areas characterised by intensive farming.

The Nation