Smallholder cropping systems contribute limited greenhouse gas fluxes in upper Eastern Kenya

Abstract

The contribution of smallholder farming systems to the National greenhouse gas (GHG) budget is missing in most developing countries, including Kenya. Data on the contribution of smallholder cropping systems to the GHG balance is essential for realising Sustainable Development Goal 13 on climate action, i.e., on nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and in compliance with the Paris Agreement. Do smallholder farming systems act as nature-based solutions for greenhouse gas emissions reduction? This study evaluated GHG emissions from cropping systems under on-farm smallholder farming conditions. We had five cropping systems on two smallholder farms: sole maize, maize-bean intercrop, coffee, banana, and agroforestry. Gas samples were collected using three static chambers per cropping system. The gas samples were analysed using gas chromatography (GC) fitted with a 63Ni-electron capture detector (ECD) for N2O and flame ionisation detector (FID) for CH4 and CO2 using N as carrier gas. Cumulative annual fluxes of (CH4, N2O, and CO2) varied significantly in farms one and two across the cropping systems. The cumulative soil GHG fluxes ranged from -1.34kg CH4C ha−1 yr−1 under agroforestry to -0.77kg CH4C ha−1 yr−1 under banana for CH4, 0.30kg N2ON ha−1 yr−1 to 1.23kg N2ON ha−1 yr−1 for N2O and 5949kg CO2C ha−1 yr−1 to 12,954kg CO2C ha−1 yr−1 for CO2. The maize grain yields ranged from 0 to 3.38 Mg ha−1. The N2O yields scaled emissions ranged from 0.10 to 0.26g kg−1 maize and 0.68 to 1.30g kg−1 beans. Smallholder farmers in Upper Eastern Kenya contribute a limited amount of soil GHG emissions and thus could act as a nature-based solution for lowering agricultural emissions.

Keywords

• Carbon dioxide
• Methane
• Nitrous oxide
• Smallholder farms
• Cropping systems
• Yield-scaled emissions