Canada’s agriculture sector emits and removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The main emission sources include: methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from animal production, i.e. enteric fermentation and manure management, and N2O is released from agricultural soils. Removals of CO2 are mainly from Canada’s agricultural soils. This net removal of CO2, observed as an increase in soil carbon storage, is due to greater adoption of conservation practices such as no-till farming and the reduction of summer-fallow on the Canadian prairies.
As there is only a small amount of rice production in Canada, therefore, CH4 emissions from rice production are considered to be negligible and are not inventoried. Similarly, field burning of agricultural residues is no longer considered a common practice in Canadian agriculture and therefore is not inventoried. Prescribed burning of savannas is not a relevant practice in Canada. Greenhouse gas emissions from on-farm fuel combustion are included in Chapter 3: Energy.
For each emission source category, a brief introduction, methodological issues, uncertainties and time-series consistency, quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) and verification, recalculations and planned improvements are provided. The detailed inventory methodologies and activity data are described in Annex 3