Research Series 35: Climate change mitigation potential of agricultural practices supported by IFAD investments

This study estimates the mitigation potential of agricultural practices supported by IFAD’s current investments in agricultural development to provide guidance for the design of future IFAD investments. We use data from field studies in the scientific literature to estimate the effects of a large set of agricultural practices promoted by IFAD (and other development agencies) on soil organic carbon stocks, nitrous oxide emissions from soils, and methane emissions from rice paddies. Our findings identify soil and rice management practices with the largest mitigation potential and those that can potentially increase emissions; discuss uncertainties in mitigation analyses; and provide recommendations to improve monitoring of mitigation benefits for project design and implementation