Modelling greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

Agriculture in a developed country such as Ireland uses intensive tillage systems, high energy and large fertilizer applications, resulting in fossil-fuel based emissions, reductions in soil carbon, and emissions of nitrous oxides. In addition, animal herds emit high methane levels. Accompanying this is the fact that environmental policy within agriculture and its effects on the revenue and output of Irish farmers is an important issue in Ireland due to the relative strength of the agriculture sector. As discussed in Chap. 2, even though Ireland's sustained strong economic performance since the mid-1990s benefited other sectors more than agriculture, the agri-food sector as a whole still accounted for an estimated 8.6 % of GDP in 2005. Primary agriculture remains more important to the Irish economy than is the case in most other EU member states. Irish agriculture accounted for 2.7 % of GDP at market prices in 2005 in Ireland, compared to an EU average of 1.6 %.