An analysis carried out by the Irish Farmers Journal using research figures from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland suggests Irish agricultural grasslands are capturing up to 9m tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.

Research carried out by AFBI over the last 50 years on soil carbon sequestration suggests Irish grasslands can sequester between 1.1t and 2.2t of CO2 per hectare every year under common management practices, which includes the application of organic and chemical fertilisers.

This means that the 4.1m ha of grassland soils in Ireland are sequestering between 4.5m and 9m tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.

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When set against the total emissions from Irish agriculture (20.6m tonnes of CO2 equivalent), this means grassland soils are potentially accumulating enough carbon every year to offset up to 44% of all carbon emissions from agriculture and up to 80% of all methane emissions from cattle and sheep (11.5m tonnes of CO2 equivalent).

Fornara says that Irish farmers could then be given carbon credits for soil carbon sequestration

However, these figures for soil carbon sequestration are not being counted under the carbon inventory currently used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In an interview with the Irish Farmers Journal, AFBI soil scientist Dario Fornara said there needs to be increased investment in research around soil carbon sequestration to accurately measure and quantify the amount of CO2 being captured every year by Irish grasslands.

If measured accurately, Fornara says that Irish farmers could then be given carbon credits for soil carbon sequestration and even incentivised to capture more carbon from the atmosphere.

Irish farmers have long argued that agriculture does not only produce carbon emissions but also captures carbon from the atmosphere in managed soils.