Agriculture Tool User Guide

1About the tool

The Agriculture tool calculates CH₄, N₂O and CO₂ from livestock, manure management, rice, managed soils, liming and urea application and biomass burning with the methods of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 4. It is built for national and subnational inventory teams, agricultural organisations and large farm operators in any country. Results come together in the UNFCCC CRF Table 3 structure and carry forward into scenario modelling.

2Quick start

1. 1

   Complete the inventory profile

   On the start sheet, enter the reporting entity, the inventory boundary and the country.

2. 2

   Set the analysis year and GWP set

   Add one or more years; select and confirm AR4, AR5 or AR6.

3. 3

   Choose the IPCC region profile

   On the livestock sheets, pick your IPCC region and development context to load matching Tier 1 defaults.

4. 4

   Enter livestock numbers

   Enter the annual average population per animal on Enteric Fermentation, or import the list from Excel. The same register feeds the manure modules.

5. 5

   Allocate manure management systems

   On the manure CH₄ and N₂O sheets, enter the share of each animal’s manure handled in each system.

6. 6

   Enter soils, rice, lime and burning data

   Manure and grazing N reach Managed Soils automatically from the livestock register; add synthetic fertiliser, crop residues and other inputs.

7. 7

   Add to inventory, review and export

   Use Add to Inventory on each sheet, then check CRF Table 3 in Results and download PDF or Excel.

3Start sheet and core settings

4Livestock register and region profile

Enteric Fermentation, Manure Management CH₄ and Manure Management N₂O share one livestock register. Population, live weight and tier parameters are entered once and all three modules use them. Manure and grazing nitrogen are also passed to Managed Soils.

• Parent and sub-rows: enter a species either on the parent row as one average or on its sub-rows in detail. If any sub-row has data the parent row locks and counts as zero; double counting is blocked in the calculation path as well as the interface.
• Tier per animal: choose Tier 1, 2 or 3 for each row. Expand a row to enter Tier 2/3 parameters — GE, Ym, live and mature weight, daily gain, milk yield and fat content.
• Bulk import: load the livestock list from Excel once and all three modules see it. Only animals named in the file are updated; unmatched names are skipped and reported, never added with an invented factor.

5Enteric fermentation (3A1)

6Manure management CH₄ (3A2)

Calculates methane formed under anaerobic conditions while manure is stored and treated. Each animal’s manure is split across 23 manure management systems (MMS) by percentage (Annex A).

7Manure management N₂O (3A2)

Calculates direct N₂O from nitrogen in stored manure and indirect N₂O via volatilisation and leaching. The primary data are nitrogen excretion per head (Nex) and the MMS split.

8Rice cultivation (3C7)

Calculates methane from the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in flooded paddies. Fields can be split into sub-units, each with 7 in-season water regimes, 5 pre-season water states and 5 organic amendment options.

9Managed soils N₂O (3C4–3C5)

Calculates direct (3C4) and indirect (3C5) N₂O from nitrogen added to managed soils. Inputs: synthetic fertiliser (F_SN), applied manure and compost (F_ON), crop residues (F_CR), mineralisation of soil organic matter (F_SOM), dung and urine deposited on pasture (F_PRP) and cultivated organic soils.

10Liming and urea CO₂ (3C2–3C3)

11Biomass burning (3C1)

Crops defined for field burning: Wheat straw, Barley straw, Rice straw, Maize stover, Cotton stalks, Sunflower stalks, Sugarcane leaves/tops, Sugar beet tops/leaves, Soybean stalks, Tobacco stalks, Other cereals, Oat straw, Rye straw, Chickpea residue, Lentil residue, Dry bean residue, Potato haulm.

12Results and CRF Table 3

Everything added to the inventory comes together in Results in the CRF Table 3 structure: livestock (3A), aggregate sources and non-CO₂ emissions on land (3C) and the agriculture total, by gas and as CO₂e with the selected GWP set.

13Scenario modelling

The Scenario module projects forward from the agriculture results in your inventory; a scenario cannot be built on an empty inventory.

• BAU scenario: built from a growth rate or a year-by-year activity projection.
• Mitigation scenario: shows the deviation at milestone years from measures chosen among 17 agriculture options (Annex B), covering enteric methane, manure management, fertiliser nitrogen, rice water management and on-farm energy.
• Years between milestones are filled with the method you choose: linear, exponential, S-curve, polynomial, step or custom.
• Outputs: scenario comparison table and pathway charts (Excel and PNG).

14Saving, importing and exporting

During a trial or without a licence you can calculate, save and preview the report as a watermarked PDF. Excel, image and unwatermarked PDF outputs need a paid licence. Work files and blank import templates are always available.

15Worked examples

Example 1 — Dairy farm, enteric CH₄, Tier 1. 1,000 dairy cows with the Western Europe region profile.

Example 2 — Arable field, synthetic N fertiliser, Tier 1. 10,000 kg N applied a year; direct N₂O only.

Example 3 — Liming and urea. 100 t of limestone and 200 t of urea applied a year.

16Verification and quality control

17Troubleshooting

18Glossary

19References

• IPCC (2006). 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4: AFOLU — Chapters 2, 5, 10 and 11.
• IPCC (2019). 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 4.
• IPCC AR4 WG1 Table 2.14, AR5 WG1 Table 8.7, AR6 WG1 Table 7.SM.7 — GWP100 values.
• UNFCCC. Common Reporting Format, Table 3 (Agriculture).

Revision history